Who ever said life was fair?
by CO Raven
Summary: This fic is my version of the quincy war, eventually spanning to present Bleach. Warning: This story contains OCs, but they will slowly die down as time passes.
1. Multitasking

A shinigami paced across Mayuri's basement lab, trying to explain the simplest of concepts to his captain

Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach. Tite Kubo does. I just own my OCs.

This takes place long before the SS arc, right at the beginning of the quincy war.

--

A shinigami paced across Mayuri's basement lab, trying to explain the simplest of concepts to his taicho. He had a straw hat and droopy white hair that hung over his left eye. He was Kimura Liam, 4th seat of the 12th division.

"Captain, we have received word that a number of gillians are currently decimating a 6th division group. Can't you send any of us to aid them or at least let us notify another division?" Liam pleaded, trying to get his captain to see sense.

Mayuri didn't seem to care as he went about his work, chipping a fragment off a small hollow's mask and placing it in a test tube. Evidently he wasn't interested in anything but his newest branch of hollow research. Nemu turned around to say something and was promptly smacked across the room by her father and sent flying towards a chemical supply cabinet. An arm reached out and caught her. Though its owner stood in the shadows, Mayuri already knew exactly who it was by the piercing red eyes.

It was Kanzaki Raven, his ever faithful third seat, the only one of his subordinates that had never failed him. He might be too soft for his own good, but the wonderful research specimens he brought in made up for that tenfold even if he spent more time designing his own version of kido than he did working.

"Kanzaki, I told you that I did not wish to be disturbed," Mayuri said, his voice laced with annoyance. Raven ran his fingers through his spiky purple hair figuring out how best to sway things his way.

"Last week you made it known that you wanted to study a gillian. It has come to my attention that there have been a number of them spotted in the living world. If I could borrow Nemu, I could procure one for you," Raven reasoned. Sure enough, a wide smile spread across Mayuri's face at the thought of finally getting better research material. He waved them all off, even Liam. Filing out of the room, the trio shunpoed to the nearest senkaimon gate.

"Liam, get some help. Nemu and I will go on ahead," Raven called out. This wasn't really unusual except for the fact that the enemy was probably a fair bit stronger than usual. Liam split off, dashing over to the 11th as Raven and Nemu leapt through the gate. Instantly, they spotted five gillians towering high above the surrounding buildings. Ten or so huge hollows were also present. One was lifting something up to its mouth. Nemu held out the palm of her hand.

"Hadou number 63: Raikouhou (Lightning Tiger Cannon)," Nemu muttered quietly as a burst of blue lightning shot out and nailed the hollow in the face, causing it to drop what it was holding. Raven rushed over to where the probable shinigami had fallen, scooped her up, and deposited her on the ground near where the survivors were fighting. The five gillians all shot cero blasts at the center of the circle where a pile of wounded shinigami lay. Quickly, Raven drew out his zanpakuto with his left hand, sketching a small rune on the ground to strengthen his spell as he thrust out his right hand.

"Reflect!" Raven cried out as a transparent barrier covered the survivors. The ceros bounced off the shield and sent the gillians reeling back in pain. Noticing this, a pair of huge hollows closed in on the source. Already drained, Raven resorted to a less stressful spell. The reflect technique required expending energy equal to the amount used to perform an attack in order to repel it, so reflecting five full power gillian ceros was a draining task.

"Expulse!" Raven yelled as he thrust out his hands. A burst of reiatsu pushed everything away from him. Every single hollow was sent sailing back into the nearby buildings, the smaller ones splattering on contact. The fatigue of his initial spell catching up to him, Raven teetered over and collided with the pavement, still awake but totally exhausted. Nemu hoisted him over her shoulder and shunpoed off before the gillians resumed hunting the one that had interrupted their meal. Taking advantage of the situation, the 2nd division members rushed towards the gate. Now angry at the prospect that dinner might get away, the gillians and huge hollows recovered and began firing cero after cero at Nemu and Raven.

"Tenza shikata, Otsutosei!" (Roughly, it means point the way, northern star)

A shinigami with spiky auburn hair came running towards them, a white broadsword in his right hand and an ethereal white shield strapped to his left arm. He hurled his zanpakuto at one of the gillians. The mask shattered on contact. Another gillian was blasted back with kido. Nemu and Raven just stared blankly at him. He didn't have a fukutaicho's badge or any other rank signification either. It was rather odd, seeing as he was putting out quite a bit of spiritual pressure.

"Run for the gate, you fools!" the shinigami barked at the pair as he ran to retrieve his zanpakuto. Nemu did as she was told, ignoring Raven's protest about how the captain was going to kill him if he didn't get a gillian. Liam strode by in the other direction.

"Don't worry about it. I'll get it for you. After all, you got the captain to let us come," Liam said with a smile. Quickly, he spotted the gillian that had been injured earlier. Now to get it over to the senkaimon gate…

Meanwhile, Raven and Nemu made it out the other side of the gate. Several captains were waiting for them. Ichimaru Gin, Kuchiki Byakuya, Kyoraku Shunsui, and Ukitake Jushiro stared down at them. There was silence for a few seconds before a gillian came flying through the gate, followed by Liam and the shinigami that had helped them before. Byakuya recovered from the shock first.

"I would like to inquire as to why a live gillian has been brought here," Byakuya stated in his usual stoic voice. He looked Raven as the eye as he was usually the ringleader for such escapades. When he collapsed, all eyes turned to Liam, who looked from one taicho to the next, unsure of how to respond. Raven was by far a more persuasive orator. He was bailed out by the timely appearance of Kurotsuchi-taicho who instantly spotted the gillian and stared at it like it was pure gold. Of course, to him, research material this rare was priceless.

"Excellent work, Kanzaki. Take a week off. Nemu! Get the new specimen into the lab!" Mayuri shouted as he went running back to his lab to prepare. Several eyebrows raised at hearing Mayuri tell someone to have a vacation. Nemu obediently did as she was told. Unfortunately, that meant that she had to drop Raven. He hit his head hard on the floor. Liam hoisted him onto his shoulders.

"I think I'll go take him to 4th," Liam said nervously. The captains nodded, already having found out what they wanted to know. Liam hurried off for fear of having to explain something else to them.

--

Raven awoke to an incessant tapping sound. Looking over, he saw Liam sitting in a chair, reading a book as usual. It was probably a novel of some sort.

"Liam, could you stop tapping your foot?" Raven asked as an anger mark grew on his forehead. It was probably more to due with the massive headache he was having than undue annoyance with his friend. After all, it was more than a habit than anything else.

"Oh. Sorry," Liam muttered. The tapping stopped, and Raven breathed a sigh of contentment.

"Hey, how many casualties were there last night?" Raven inquired. There had to have been at least six or so gauging by the number of wounded he'd seen during the brief fight even if they'd been extremely lucky.

"Actually, there were none thanks to your division's quick response."

Raven looked over and saw the shinigami that had helped them out before with the gillians.

"Raven, this is Aurion Kratos. He's the third seat of the 6th division, but he's far beyond any fukutaicho," Liam explained. Kratos shot him a glare, indicating that he didn't want a full bio on himself out there. Truth be told, he had declined the currently empty fukutaicho position because he wanted to stay out of Soul Society's politics, at least officially.

"The 6th thanks you for your help. If you ever need anything, don't hesitate to ask," Kratos said as he walked out. The kid had good intentions, but he wasn't anywhere near strong enough to make the kind of difference he probably wanted to. It was time to do some background research.

"I guess he just had his say and left," Raven said quietly. It was really a disappointment as he'd wanted to find someone to help him improve his swordsmanship. Now he had, but the favor would come in handy later. With his new project, he'd definitely need it.

"Liam, we're going to move ahead of schedule. The Council of 46 voted on war against the quincys yesterday, and I think that we just found a possible ally even though we'll eventually need more," Raven said, "Go on ahead and have Nemu get those files for me." Liam got up and strode off back to the 12th. He had a feeling that work was about to get really complicated.

--

This is a bit of a short chapter, but this isn't even close to warmed up. On the bright side, writers block will never happen as this is done written by hand. Unfortunately, I am a slow typist.

On another note, I'm a firm believer that OC protagonists shouldn't be overpowered in relation to upper echelon characters except maybe very late in a story. If you find that I ever do that, please let me know. However, keep in mind that in some cases, power can be balanced out with a lack of endurance or a deficiency elsewhere.

Feel free to leave a review, but please try to give me reasons as to why you think the way you do, good or bad.


	2. Sugar makes you happy

Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach

Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach. Tite Kubo does. I own my OCs.

--

The next morning, Raven was cleared for release from the 4th. As soon as he got back to the 12th, he saw Nemu waiting for him at the front door. It was odd as she was usually by her father's side whenever he got a new research specimen/toy to torture/play with.

"Raven-sama, Mayuri-sama has granted you a personal office from where you can conduct the project you discussed with him," Nemu informed emotionlessly. Raven opened his mouth to protest the further increased formality but decided against it. That could be dealt with later, and he had things to do first.

Following her to his new office, he found that Liam was already moving stuff in. Raven sat down in his new, much more comfortable chair. Having a new office had its perks. There was a door. He only had to walk half as far to get to the coffee maker. His computer was better. He had the swivel chair. Best of all, he could suggest community stuff for the private offices. Quickly, he filled out a form to request that a soda fountain be installed.

"Nemu, I requested a file on-" Raven started. Without waiting for the rest, Nemu walked out of the room to fetch the files and came back a few seconds later, bearing a stack of large black folders. Raven took it and began thumbing through the pages.

"Do you really plan on memorizing all that?" Liam asked.

"I'll give myself a week," Raven said, giving a small nod. Liam looked at him incredulously. With that much information, it would take a photographic memory to absorb it all within such a short amount of time.

"Is there anything I can get for you, Raven-sama? Mayuri-sama instructed me to aid you in any way possible," Nemu said.

"I really wish you wouldn't call me that. We've been working together for years," Raven moaned. He hated formality so much, and he was constantly surrounded by it.

"Yes, Raven-dono," Nemu replied. Liam would have laughed if he didn't agree too.

"I meant that you should drop the honorific. Just call me Raven," Raven reasoned. They'd been working together for years, and she was technically at a higher rank than he even if the captain saw things differently.

"Yes… Raven," Nemu said, struggling a bit with the words. For her, it just wasn't natural. Raven recognized this and decided to ease such things in more slowly in the future. Change took time, especially when tradition was programmed directly into the mind. He put down the folder and left the room, heading towards Mayuri's basement lab. Sure enough, the gillian from the night before was bound to a lab table as it was being taken apart bit by bit.

"Taicho, would it be possible to make my next assignment a field mission?" Raven asked. He received a garbled response about telling Nemu to do it and that there was research to do. Raven went back to his office relieved. This would make keeping a low profile much easier.

"Nemu, could modify my next mission? Make it a living world mission to assess the situation with the quincys as well as to procure some of their technology for the 12th division research," Raven said. Research and specimen were two of the major magic words in Mayuri's book. Nemu quincy walked off to make the changes. Liam leaned over to him.

"Are you sure it's wise to mask what we're doing by using Nemu?" Liam asked. There were a million ways it could go wrong someone just had to ask her the right question, and they were dead. Then again, there were loopholes. Unless she was asked in a set of very specific terms, she could leave out bits of information if she so chose.

"We'll be fine. Mayuri will cover for us as long as we feed him research material," Raven reasoned. He knew his captain all too well. There was a loophole for everything, and he was only involving people that couldn't really be dragged down with him. Opening the folder again, he flipped a page and jotted a few notes down on a notepad. Nemu walked back in.

"I have made the arrangements you requested… Raven," Nemu informed. She was still having trouble with the concept of equality. Raven stood up and headed for the door again.

"I can get whatever you need for you," Nemu said, almost desperately. She felt kind of lost with no orders or directions.

"I was just going to get some coffee," Raven said, "If you really feel you need to, I suppose you could get it for me." Nemu walked off, happy to serve. Raven sighed and took a seat. At this rate, he'd probably never be able to get his own coffee or anything for the next few years at least.

"Take it one step at a time, right Raven?" Liam said.

"We'll eventually get there," Raven responded, "Interesting. Anger management issues."

Liam cocked an eyebrow at him and was about to ask about the comment when the door opened. Nemu had returned with the coffee, setting it on the desk.

"What shall I do now?" Nemu asked. Raven thought about it for a second. He couldn't just keep sending her on small, menial errands as it would be a near constant interruption when she finished each one in record time. Oh well. Now was a good a time as any to introduce a new pivotal concept that couldn't be avoided for much longer anyway.

"Nemu, go take some leave and have some fun." Raven said. It sounded good at first, and Nemu didn't immediately reject it. Then she asked a question that he couldn't really answer.

"Fun? What's that?" Nemu asked curiously.

Oh great. He should have seen that coming a mile away.

"Why don't you ask the other captains- Wait. Don't do that. That was a bad idea in general," Raven muttered. If she did that, she'd search her memory for the last captain that had said the word "fun." That would most likely lead her to ask Kyoraku-taicho or possible Ichimaru-taicho. Neither one would end well. Without a better option, Raven and Liam had to do it themselves.

"You see, fun is an activity that creates a feeling of happiness," Liam said. A female shinigami from the 2nd stuck her head in the door and handed Raven a folder. She was rather short at 5-2 and had a white ponytail. The folder held a request for information on a particular hollow. Apparently, she was just dropping it off before going on leave for the rest of the day. Raven opened a drawer and skimmed it for the file.

"What does happiness feel like?" the answer came back. Raven smacked his head on the table. This was going to be a long day.

"I can help you answer that," the 2nd division member offered.

"Please do," Liam said. Before they knew what was happening, they were all in a random fast food place in the living world.

"Heh. You've dragged all of us out to the living world, and we don't even know-" Liam started.

"Her name is Yamamoto Karin, 5th seat of the 2nd division. She has no known relation to the soutaicho. I glanced over her file before we left," Raven answered for him. He received a solid whack in the head.

"Everyone's a file or a statistic for you people in the 12th," Karin fumed. A couple seconds later, she lightened up.

"So Nemu-san, do you like pepsi or coke?" Karin asked. Nemu thought about it for a second after trying each one. Both were good. They were just different. She couldn't really pick one over the other.

"Let me rephrase that. Do you prefer plain sweet sodas like pepsi and coke or do you prefer ones that have a fruit taste to them like sprite or slice?" Karin asked. While Nemu was thinking, the new fat fukutaicho of the 2nd, Ohmaeda Marechiyo came in.

"Gimme some coke!" he demanded as he slammed some money on the counter. Grabbing it, he downed the thing in one gulp and got up to refill his cup with a content smile as he guzzled the sugary goodness.

"Um… As you see, coke makes Ohmaeda-fukutaicho smile and feel good when he's sad or stressed. That feeling is happiness, and fun is anything you do that makes you feel that way," Karin explained.

"I think I understand now. Ohmaeda is happy when he drinks coke or eats powder doughnuts. Kyoraku-taicho and Matsumoto-fukutaicho have fun when they go drinking, and Zaraki-taicho has fun when he fights," Nemu said, trying to absorb the concept. At this point, Ohmaeda recognized group of shinigami and came stomping over.

"What're you all doing here instead of working?!" he interrogated, pointing an accusing finger at Karin. Nemu stuffed the coke back in his mouth, smiling.

"I asked Karin-san to come. Have a coke. Sugar makes you happy," Nemu said. Everyone in the vicinity broke out laughing. Karin tried to bite it back but failed miserably. The way Nemu said it made it that much worse. Turning red, Ohmaeda ran out.

An hour later, they walked out, still laughing.

"Why did you say that sugar made him happy, Nemu-san?" Karin asked.

"Ohmaeda-fukutaicho likes coke and powder doughnuts. The only thing they really have in common is sugar, so he must like sugar," Nemu explained in a completely serious tone, oblivious to what she had implied at the fast food joint. A few minutes later, Nemu and Karin split off from the other two to have fun with their short vacation while Raven and Liam went back to the office to work.

Work continued for several hours before Raven decided that it was time to call it a day and go home. Liam wanted to stay a bit longer to brush up on some quincy history. As Raven reached the entrance, he felt a cold chill creep along the ground. There was a flash of a wide fox-like smile.

"Ichimaru-taicho," Raven greeted. This particular captain had helped cover for him on several occasions, but it would be folly to trust him entirely. He had a personal agenda that no one could possibly guess at. It was creepy how-

"I hear you're workin' on a project concerning the quincys, a hands on project," Ichimaru mentioned with a wave of his hand, "I think you'll need a bit more show to do what you want to do." That's right. It was creepy how he always seemed to know about everything. Just how much did he know?

"I'm not spyin' on you or nothin'. I just heard stuff, so I thought I'd give some advice," Ichimaru reassured, "Earning yer shikai would give you more respect. Lemme help ya."

No one in their right mind would like where this was going. Before Raven could reject the offer, Ichimaru disappeared. Raven looked up.

"Ikorose, Shinso."

Ichimaru's zanpakuto shot forward, shattering the ground as Raven hurled himself out of its path in a very undignified way as he received a gray streak on his cheek where he skidded on the ground.. Before he even landed, Shinso came shooting out again. Raven was caught on the blunt end and knocked to the ground. Recovering from having the wind knocked out of him, he drew out his zanpakuto to fight back. A moment later, he was holding a hilt. Shinso had shattered the blade.

"C'mon. Your zanpakuto is a reflection of your soul. Fear won't make for a strong blade," the captain advised as he swung again, "Stop being afraid and take a chance. You'll get nowhere playing it so safe while doing something so unsafe." As stupid as it sounded, it was true that the operation would never succeed with only a handful of people. Raven looked down at his shattered zanpakuto. Couldn't Ichimaru have just told him that? Now he'd have to put his zanpakuto back together somehow before he left for the living world. Time was a scarce commodity.

"See ya tomorrow morning," Gin called out happily. Raven angrily picked up the scattered shards of metal on the ground and wrapped them in his cloak. He most definitely did not want to see that creepy smile the next day. By the time he got to the barracks, he had come to term with the fact that peace wouldn't be part of his life the next morning. He heard something call out to him, but he was far too tired and stressed to listen. Wobbling, he ambled over to his bed, dropped what was left of his zanpakuto next to his bed. Mashing his face into the nearest pillow, he drowned out the sound. Closing his eyes, Raven drifted off to sleep with the thought that at least he'd be fine until he woke up.

--

Wham! The door to the 12th division barracks was kicked down as Ichimaru barged in. In less than a minute, almost the entire division was evacuated out of the building out of sheer fear. Raven stayed because he knew he had little choice. Liam did too, but that was just because he was still asleep from working late the night before.

"You didn't come visit me this morning, so I came to find you," Ichimaru said, shrugging as though this was all completely logical, including the destruction of the door. Raven glanced at his clock. It was 6 a.m., and he was really grumpy from lack of sleep. As bad as Nemu had made it sound the day before, sugar did make people happy. A cold Mountain Dew would have been welcomed with open arms. Unfortunately, the closest place to get one was the fast food joint they'd gone to the day before.

"It's six in the morning! I usually don't wake up for another hour or so! If you want a sparring match, you can have it!" Raven thundered, "Hadou number 31: Shakkahou!"

Fire shot forth from Raven's hands, singeing the floor and doorframe as the surprised captain was ousted from the building. He was for the most part unharmed, but his haori would have to replaced soon. It was beginning to look like Kenpachi's. After a second, his smile grew even wider at the thought of a third seat fighting him without a zanpakuto. A slaughter would be no fun. Either the kid had grown some guts or he'd just snapped. It was time to find out which one.

"Hadou number 4: Byakurai!" Raven called out. Ichimaru sidestepped the lightning bolts and started a furious but random assault with Shinso. Raven easily dodged the first few attacks, but the speed quickly increased until he had no hope of possibly keeping up. There was no way he could concentrate enough to do kido while dancing around like this. He was booted back into the wall next to his bed. His hand fell on the hilt of his shattered zanpakuto. It felt so dead. Even though he never learned its name, the blade had always had a hopeful feeling to it. Why had it shattered so easily? Did he not talk to it enough?

"Calling me "it" isn't very flattering," Raven heard in the back of his head. So his relationship with his zanpakuto wasn't the best in the world. Neither one had really professed that much interest in the other hearing them in the past. This was just peachy.

"When it rains, it pours," Raven muttered to himself.

"Eh? What's that supposed to mean?" Ichimaru asked, interested all of a sudden.

"Apparently, now my zanpakuto wants to talk to me, now when I'm busy preparing for a mission and while you're attacking me," Raven shot beck venomously, bypassing a certain crucial piece of information that the captain was only too happy to point out.

"May I remind you that it was you who first tried to fry me with kido?" Ichimaru calmly pointed out, "Well, bye-bye."

In an instant, the ever annoying captain was gone, most likely off to bother someone else. Raven stared at the empty space for a full minute. As random, unprofessional, and infuriating Ichimaru Gin might be, he had some good points. Maybe it was time to have a quality chat with his zanpakuto. It couldn't really hurt, could it?

--

So ends chapter two. At least this one was a bit longer than the first, a medium sized chapter.


	3. A simple talk with my zanpakuto

Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach

Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach. Tite Kubo does.

I finally moved… somewhat.

--

"Um… I know I've ignored you in the past, and I-" Raven began. Finally, after all the action was over and done with, Liam woke up and rubbed his eyes. The first thing he noticed was that the room looked like a tornado had hit it. Then he saw the large hole where a door used to stand. His eyes drifted over to where Raven was apparently talking to a hilt.

"What exactly are you doing, and what happened to the room?" Liam asked, fearing for his friend's sanity. It was like he didn't even notice the destruction around him.

"I'm talking to my zanpakuto. I've been ignoring it for quite some time," Raven answered, then sighed as he was mentally rebuked for using the word it again, "As for the room, Ichimaru-taicho happened." Liam nodded in understanding as he attempted to wrap his brain around what had probably happened. Deciding that Raven would be best off talking with his zanpakuto alone, he got up and left to have a chat with some people over in the 6th. As Raven watched Liam leave, he was thrust into his inner world. At first glance he saw no one. As he observed his surroundings, he took note that everything was shattered or broken. A large mansion loomed in front of him. He walked up the stone steps and lightly pushed on the door. It opened with a loud creak.

"Eh? Anyone here?" Raven asked. Just where was his zanpakuto anyway? Getting the feeling that he was being watched, he whirled around. There was nothing. Being paranoid in his own mind was definitely not a good thing. He felt something brush by him, then a lot of extra weight pressing down on him. Losing his balance, he crashed to the floor.

"Get off me!" Raven yelled as his face was pushed further into the tile floor. Flipping over, he pinned the unwanted passenger on the ground and grinded his knee into her chest. Looking closer, he saw Karin. He rubbed his eyes. Still there, just what she'd probably look like in a few human years. Hurriedly, he got up and dusted himself off.

"What was that for, and what're you doing in my head?!" he yelled.

"That was for ignoring me for over a century, and I live here," the answer came back. Just great. If anyone in the Seireitei found out about this, he'd never hear the end of it.

"Can I at least get a name?" Raven asked. He really just wanted to get his shikai, take a nap, then go back to quality time with his zanpakuto. Maybe he'd go visit the 13th and do some of that zen stuff to calm his nerves while he was at it. At this rate, he'd probably need it.

"I'm Karin," his zanpakuto replied. Raven wanted to curl up and die then and there. He was doomed to eternal embarrassment. Why couldn't his zanpakuto have a cool name like Ichimaru-taicho's Yamamoto-soutaicho's? Color drained from his face and a dark gloom creeped across the room.

"Hey, don't go infect the space I live in with your gloomy thoughts! I was just kidding. My name is Shoukyaku," the zanpakuto spirit said in an attempt to drive away the shadows that crept along the floor. Raven breathed a sigh of relief and the shadows receded.

"Okay. Thanks. Bye," Raven said as he inched away in search of an exit. He was yanked back, and his head collided with the tile again. Quality time was even more of a headache than he'd first imagined.

"Hey! You just got here! You can't go yet!" Shoukyaku whined, grabbing onto his cloak.

"Watch me," Raven shot back angrily.

"Then I'll just chain you down here for a century and see how you feel!" Shoukyaku shrieked back at him. A long chain materialized in her hand. Mentally snapping, Raven slapped her hard and faded back to reality.

"I'm gonna kill her one of these days…" Raven muttered under his breath as he headed off to the 13th, hands thrust angrily in his pockets. Everyone made way, carefully avoiding him. Walking through Ukitake-taicho's Japanese gardens was a soothing activity that might help him calm down. He was still muttering insults when he plopped himself in front of the pond. Even the coy instantly swam to the other side. He would have been less angry if he'd noticed that Ukitake had just tossed some fish food out on the other side.

"Looks like someone's in a grouchy mood," came a calm voice from behind. Raven turned and spotted Shiba Kaien, Ukitake's fukutaicho. Not in the mood to listen, Raven turned his gaze back to the pond.

"Talk to me. When you're upset, you come to these gardens and scare everything away. Usually, either Ukitake or I have to come and put a stop to your moping," Kaien said, and Raven grudgingly had to admit that every word of it was true. He explained everything in detail, omitting how Ichimaru-taicho had started it all.

"Eh? You slapped your zanpakuto? Slapped, not hit?" Kaien asked, raising an eyebrow. That was new. He may have been from the 12th, but who would have thought the kid was so…

"What's that supposed to-?!" Raven began to rage as he tried to get to his feet. In the process, he tripped on his hakama and fell back into the pond with a splash. That attracted the attention of Ukitake who had been enjoying himself on the opposite bank.

"He's back again?" Ukitake called out in a tired voice. Kaien gave him a tired nod, and he slowly made his way over. So much for quiet relaxation… He'd been listening somewhat earlier, but this was proving to be worse than usual. Kaien sighed and helped the kid out of the pond.

"You're clumsier than usual. You might want to be more careful in the future, Ukitake commented. Raven grumbled a word of thanks.

"In any case, you should try to patch things up with your zanpakuto no matter how disagreeable they might be," Kaien advised.

"She wants to chain me down for a century in my own mind!" Raven exclaimed.

"What you do to come to terms with your zanpakuto isn't something we can really tell you how to do, but come to us directly next time instead of scaring the coy. I noticed that they came to lunch more quickly than usual," Ukitake said. As he hoped, Raven got up and ambled off, hopefully to do something about his situation and not to go mope somewhere else.

Raven made his way back to the destroyed barracks and picked up his zanpakuto once more, entering his inner world. Shoukyaku was sitting in the same place as before, arms crossed, her back to him.

"So, you're back," Shoukyaku muttered. Raven took a deep breath to make sure he'd cooled off a bit and sat down.

"I-I wanted to apologize for slapping you," Raven stammered. He really was sorry. He'd just snapped from the compounding stress, mostly due to Ichimaru-taicho's antics. In fact, he still had those files to go over too, and tight schedules didn't like interruptions.

"I don't care," Shoukyaku responded indignantly as she crossed her arms and turned away from him. Why did she have to so difficult?

"You're going to have to apologize every time you release me. This way, I can be sure that you won't just forget," Shoukyaku said with an evil smile. Yes, she was being really difficult. Time to put on the cheesy smile.

"Sure," Raven replied. That would be the best way to fix things, right?

"Oh yes I can make you- Wait, did you just agree?" Shoukyaku asked, half stunned, half angry that she couldn't chew him out for refusing.

"Yeah, I did."

Shoukyaku loosened up a bit, and they exchanged information about each other for a while. Every once in a while, she'd zone out or an odd look would come across her face.

"Shoukyaku, are you okay? What's wrong?" Raven asked as she zoned for the 4th time. He wasn't really worried. After all, a zanpakuto couldn't die without its owner closely following, and he felt fine. He just really hated being out of the loop.

"I'm fine," she replied, shaking her head as though trying to push a thought away. There was a slight gust, and it began to snow. Her brow furrowed, and she stood up.

"Is it normal for it to snow without warning in my head?" Raven asked. He was for the most part ignored as his zanpakuto concentrated on something else. Then without warning, she shoved him out of his inner world.

"That was rather odd," Raven muttered to himself. He opened his eyes and saw white. Wait, didn't he burn the ceiling with kido earlier? He was sure he did-

"You're finally up."

Raven picked his head up and noticed that he was in the 4th… again. Liam was sitting next to him just like last time. Kratos stood at the foot of the bed he was laying on.

"Who knew that talking to your zanpakuto could land you in coma?" Kratos noted in an almost amused voice, "I was just discussing your… plans with Liam here. It's interesting to say the least."

"Will you help us?" Raven asked hopefully.

"I'll consider it, but don't worry. At worst, I'll leave you both to your business," Kratos replied. He shunpoed from the room as several dozen women scrambled towards him.

"Hey Liam, what just happened?" Raven asked. He might have been cooped up in a lab for the past century, but he'd like to think that he'd have noticed when someone had fans following him around everywhere. These things didn't just happen overnight.

"I'm not sure either. It started yesterday, and now he's right behind Kuchiki-taicho in terms of fans," Liam replied. There was of course still a sizable gap, but that gap was shrinking by the minute.

Outside, Kratos had managed to get to the relative safety of the 6th division office, slowing down just before he got to the door so as not to look panicked when he walked in. Kuchiki-taicho hated it when people rushed in, saying that it was unrefined or uncivilized. At the same time, he had good reason to rush. It wasn't his fault half of the Shinigami Women's Association was on his tail on a quest for photo shoots, interviews, and every other fangirl related activity.

-- mini flashback to yesterday morning –

Kratos was taking his usual stroll trough the gardens that Byakuya had had imported near the 6th division compound. He heard a few steps behind him and turned to see who it was. It was Ise Nanao, the relatively new fukutaicho of the 8th division.

"Ise-fukutaicho, what brings you here? I assure you that Kyoraku-taicho isn't hiding here. He's out drinking with Matsumoto-fukutaicho and the 11th," Kratos said. Nanao shook her head.

"I already dragged him back to the office. I've been trying my best to get the idea across that I'm not interested in him, but he doesn't get the message," Nanao explained. Kratos raised an eyebrow. Just what was he supposed to do about it?

"I know you'd rather that it not exist, but… I figured that if I joined the growing Kratos Aurion fan club, he might get the idea and back off." Nanao reasoned. In Kratos' opinion, this was a bad idea in general, doomed to fail miserably just like every other plan to get Kyoraku-taicho to stop flirting with someone. A blank, stoic look would get the message across.

"I don't think Kyoraku-taicho will ever stop flirting with you. He'll take it as competition and fight to win you back," Kratos tried to reason to no avail. He received a pleading look and caved in with a sigh, wondering why he wasn't coldly shooting this ridiculous idea down.

"Do as you will, but I doubt it will work. In fact, it might even get worse."

"The reason I wanted to ask you beforehand-" Nanao started. She was quickly cut off.

"Go on before I change my mind," Kratos advised. That was the nice thing to do, right?

Nanao quickly thanked him and ran off. Kratos then got the sinking feeling that this wouldn't end well for either of them. At this point, only a jerk would rescind permission, but Kyoraku-taicho would be far too unpredictable in his reaction.

-- back to present –

Okay, maybe it was partially his fault for caving in and deciding to let her go on with it. Now the SWA was bent of figuring out how he had gotten Nanao of all people as the president of his fan club. It had swelled in size immediately.

"This is the difference between a noble and a commoner no matter how refined he might be," Byakuya stated, "A noble is detached from emotions and would not have gotten so involved." Kratos could only nod. He knew that Byakuya would have ignored it all, somehow still avoid the photo shoots and dispel the rumors with a mere glance. Sadly, he was not Byakuya.

"Don't be too disappointed. You understand the ways of the nobles and follow them as best you can. At the same time, you'll never be a noble, and you've accepted that. That is the best a commoner can be."

Taking Byakuya's version of praise with a nod, Kratos sat down and got to work. Perhaps this would all pass in time. Then peace would return, and he could go about his business. Mentally, he kicked himself for even thinking that. Now was probably normal compared to what was inevitably coming with the quincy war. By tomorrow, the order would go out for interdivision training in preparation for the war.

"However, helping those in need is not dishonorable. Sometimes the work is too much for the subordinate and the noble must come personally," Byakuya added. Kratos sighed. There was no one who he could pass the job off to. The odds of that pair succeeding were already next to nothing, and none he knew that could give the kind of help they needed would. Life was going to be even busier and more interesting than before.

Meanwhile, Raven was released from the 4th as he was in perfect condition. Immediately, he headed back to his office to finish reading the files. He'd have to hurry if he wanted to finish by the end of the week. Hopefully, the Gotei 13 would take ages to mobilize their forces as usual.

--

So ends chapter 2. Review if you feel like it. Feedback is good.


	4. Negotiations

Disclaimer: Bleach belongs to Tite Kubo

Disclaimer: Bleach belongs to Tite Kubo. All I own are the OCs Raven, Liam, Karin, a few others that come later, and my ideas. A couple of them are adaptations based off of Namco or Nintendo characters.

Let's move on with chapter 4.

--

A week slowly crawled by with the help of caffeine, sugar, and sleepless nights. At last, at midnight, all the files lay in a large "completed" stack. Raven leapt for joy and crumpled as he hit the ground and his legs gave. Maybe that wasn't the best idea when both his legs were asleep. Come to think of it, so were his arms and the left side of his face.

"This is the after effect of convincing me to lend you my energy so you could stay up longer," came a taunting voice from the back of his head. Perhaps he'd go see if Kratos had come to a decision on whether to help them or not, and then he'd take a nap. Standing up, he took a few wobbly steps before his body collapsed on the floor. He was definitely not borrowing energy again if he could avoid it. It was pleasing at the start but extremely annoying afterwards. He was very much awake, but he literally couldn't move an inch. Oh well. He needed to catch up on sleep anyway.

About 12 hours later, Raven woke up with much more energy than before. He got up and walked out of his office, past the 12th, but unfortunately not all the way past the 11th. A young teen with spiky, red, pineapple shaped hair, probably a new shinigami, stood in the middle of a bunch of burly 11th division members.

"You don't belong in the 11th, shrimp!" one of them thundered as he drew himself up to full height. He had at least six inches more in height and about 70 pounds more in weight. Surprisingly, the kid didn't shrink away at this.

"I'll show you a difference in strength!" the kid shot back as he brandished his zanpakuto. That brought forth a roar of laughter from the other members around him.

"You couldn't even beat that clumsy oaf from the geek squad over there!" one taunted. Raven slapped a hand over his face when he realized that the thug was pointing directly at him. Then again, the kid wouldn't bend to peer pressure that quickly since he stood up to them, would he?

"Hey, four-eyes!" came a shout from across the courtyard as he hurled himself forward. Okay, maybe he would. Raven stepped aside to dodge the initial attack and drew out his zanpakuto… which was still just a hilt. He stared blankly at it for a second before ducking an attempt at his head. Inside, he was rebuked for making them both look like idiots in public.

"Kid, maybe you should just prove yourself some other way. Even if you win, they'll say that I'm just a geek, and you still won't get any respect," Raven tried to reason logically. Unfortunately, logic rarely worked on anyone with the 11th, especially if it was backing the concept of not fighting.

"It's not "kid"! My name is Abarai Renji!" he shouted as he quickened his brash, uncoordinated assault. Perhaps a show of force was necessary to avoid more trouble.

"Gomen, Shoukyaku."

Raven's zanpakuto repaired itself with a few decorative changes, and even that was stretching it. Now the edge of the blade was black and the back white. It looked so… not special, not to mention not intimidating the way he had been hoping it would be. Renji managed a decent shunpo behind Raven and slashed down at his head. The blade was blocked without even looking. Raven allowed himself a small smirk, and then his eyes widened as his left hand seemed to lose the confinements of reality. It literally moved through the hilt of his zanpakuto. Glancing down, he noticed that he was holding a blade in each hand, a shining white one in his right and an ethereal black one in his left. Renji was on the ground with a huge gash across his chest.

"Okay, what just happened?" Raven asked to no one in particular.

"That's your shikai, baka!" his zanpakuto angrily informed him, "Stop doing stuff that makes us look stupid. Now slash that fool with the white sword."

Raven hesitated for a moment and received a glare. Still unsure, he started slowly. The blade healed the wounds somewhat. At least the bleeding stopped. One of the old academy zanjutsu professors came walking in the kid's direction, mumbling something about a kid sneaking in to drink with the 11th. That explained everything. Figuring that it would be wisest, Raven went about his way. Attention was not something he wanted to deal with right now. As he left, he tried to jam the swords back together only to find that the black one ghosted through the white one. Inside, he heard snickering.

"Yeah. Very funny. Now how do I put them back together?" Raven asked as he glanced from one blade to the other.

"Put them together and sync their reiatsu," Shoukyaku muttered as though she were dealing with a nitwit. Raven mutter a garbled form of thanks as he put Shoukyaku back together and put her back into her sealed state. A shinigami shunpoed up to him, bearing a message, one Raven now knew to be Kamata Makoto, one of Kratos' major fans. She had a long dark blue ponytail and a cocky grin on her face. He'd heard that she was persistent and unable to keep her mouth shut.

"Kratos-kun says he has a message for you. He said that you have his support and to leave immediately, whatever that's for. The way he said it almost makes you sound like a criminal," Makoto said with a smile. Raven gave her the stupid look. Yes, the rumors were right. If they were in the earshot of member of the remote squad, both he and Kratos were dead. Nemu and Liam wouldn't be far behind, either.

"Don't worry so much," Makoto chided, "One of my friends from the 2nd is watching this area. We'll be fine."

"Maybe I should go now if Kratos said so," Raven said, eager to leave. Since he met Kratos, Liam had drilled one thing into him. Kratos was a man of few words, but it was wisest to heed every single one. Without waiting for a reply, he shunpoed back to the 12th, grabbed a few items off his desk, and hopped through the nearest senkaimon gate. He was let out near the river in Karakura Town. It was the place where there was the highest concentration of hollow disappearances without shinigami intervention. Unfortunately, quincy spirit threads would still be white. Raven closed his eyes and felt for reiatsu. There was nothing out of the ordinary, just as he expected. Quincys excelled at reiatsu control.

"They're good. Luckily, I came prepared," Raven muttered quietly as he crushed some minor hollow bait. It would attract a couple hollows but not a horde. As each one appeared, it was greeted with an arrow to the mask. Almost all of them seemed to be coming from an old warehouse nearby.

"Eh? Why would they be there?" Raven asked as he walked over to it. He kept his reiatsu above normal as he didn't want to look like a spy. If they got that impression, he'd most likely die on the spot. He poked his head in the door, closed his eyes and waited for a few seconds. Not dead was good. He opened his eyes and saw that the whole warehouse was full of quincys. All eyes were on him. A messy looking teenage one with black hair and a smug look had an arrow inches from his face.

"Guys, I think we got ourselves a spy," He commented in a cocky voice.

"Baka, he walked in the front door," said another.

"If you're not a spy, then what are you here for?" the first quincy asked. Raven took a deep breath. First impressions were crucial.

"The Soul Society wants to eradicate the quincys, and I can help you," Raven said, trying to sound confident.

A roar of laughter rose from the quincys. Raven had been at arrow point as soon as he walked in.

"I can help you a lot more than you know, Fujiwara Shinobu," Raven said, looking him in the eye.

"Do I know you? I don't think I've met you before," Shinobu responded, trying and failing to place him.

"You're wasting your time. We've never met. I know your name because I read your profile in the shinigami records of all prominent quincys." Shinobu smirked at the thought that the shinigami considered him prominent.

An tall quincy with spiky blonde hair and a piercing glare stepped forward, fingering something on the back of his belt, probably a seele schneider. He was Soichiro Shindo, a prominent middle aged quincy with a level head. Though he was far from the eldest, he had a sharp mind and kept up with the times, careful of underhanded tactics. He had been elected the top general of the quincys. The Soul Society would undoubtedly plan for a fight with their old, conservative ones who used the words "quincy pride" in every other sentence and did everything with a medieval chivalric fashion. A completely different general would be able to combat the shinigami much more effectively than they or so they thought.

"You probably already know who I am," Soichiro began, "You do seem suspicious, but we will hear you out since it would be a crime for us not to in the event that you were truthful." Raven stood there for a second. Shinobu dismissed his bow and smacked him on the head.

"Well, out with it!" Shinobu huffed impatiently. Raven received another whack, this one from Shoukyaku for the same reason as every other time she smacked him.

"The Gotei 13 has decided that the quincys are a threat to the balance of the worlds because of the fact that quincys destroy hollows completely. The Council of 46 claims that they have asked you repeatedly to stop killing hollows for this reason to no effect. If don't believe that all of you would all disregard such a warning when given intelligent reasons."

"Wait a sec! They never said talked about that balance of the worlds thing!" Shinobu shouted at Raven, cutting him off. One of the older quincys berated him for his blatant rudeness.

"Look, I don't trust the Council of 46 any more than you guys do," Raven defended, holding his hands up in surrender, "I just want to stop the coming war before it begins. If it does, it'll spell disaster for both sides."

"Our intelligence says that the Council of 46 officially declared war on us about a week ago. Is this true?" Soichiro asked. Raven gave him a grim nod. A short female quincy in the back spoke up in a stoic yet commanding voice. It almost reminded him of Kratos and Kuchiki-taicho.

"Just how do you plan to help us?"

Scanning her quickly, Raven figured that this was probably Toyoshima Yukari, one of the few loner quincys as most were like a family. According to the reports, she was a fighter more than anything else, one of the best the quincys had. She alone stood in the back, detached from everyone else. The way everyone went silent the moment she began to speak was also a dead giveaway.

"I plan to invent a method where quincys may be able to purify hollows rather than fully destroying them. Though it was not your original intention of how to deal with them, it would avert the war," Raven reasoned. He reached into his cloak and pulled out a rolled sheet of paper, tossing it to Soichiro who opened it and looked it over.

"Interesting. You've designed an attachment to our arrows that will purify hollows," he mused to himself. It wouldn't be practical for use, but it was a good start.

"I also have another gift for you," Raven added as he held up his left hand, drawing attention to the white glove on it that resembled a sanrei shuto or scattering glove. Some of the higher level quincys scoffed at this as they had already achieved final form and had no need for such an item.

"This is a modified version of the sanrei shuto that combines shinigami and quincy technology. It has the reiatsu control abilities of the sanrei shuto but also has the ability to store reishi and reiatsu given to it. When taken off, it will release the stored energy into the user and grant him or her a power boost proportionate to how much they've put into the glove. That way, it minimizes the chance of an overload yet is capable of providing the maximum power output," Raven explained, trying to emphasize the applications. In actuality, he hadn't spent that much time on designing it as he'd read about how Urahara-taicho had designed Zaraki-taicho's reiatsu suppressing eye patch. Modifying it to act more as a storage unit than a repressor wasn't too difficult. He just had to use a different method to get rid of the mouths. No one wanted that kind of feeling on their hands 24/7. He was never sure how Zaraki-taicho could stand having that feeling on his eye.

"Blah, blah, blah… Stop jabbering and show us," Shinobu said, spitting on the ground. He lazily pulled out his bow and fired an arrow at Raven who removed his glove and grabbed the arrow. It was crushed in his bare hand. Shinobu angrily whipped out his seele schneider. With an abnormally fast shunpo, Raven was instantly in front of him, reiatsu flowing out like crazy, easily more than ten times the amount of power he had before.

"Be careful what you wish for!" Raven thundered as he gripped the seele schneider and released the rest of the reiatsu he'd gotten when he released the glove. He wasn't really angry. In fact it was great since he could give his little invention its first real battle test. It felt kind of odd. Squeezing as hard as he could, he shattered the schneider's blade. In that moment, he felt what it was like to be a captain and dwarf those around him. Shinobu's eyes glazed over as the shards of the broken blade hit the ground and dispersed. Then Raven's power faded back to its normal, far less awing levels.

"Get back here, Shinobu before you embarrass yourself even more," Yukari advised. He returned to his usual spot with an angry huff. All the fool had done was break a schneider. As miraculous as the feat was for a 3rd seat, it still wouldn't make him win in the end once the energy burst subsided.

"You seem to have come up with a very interesting invention," Yukari praised. Raven picked up the discarded glove and put it back on. It would be nearly another month before he could pull a stunt like that again, but it was well worth it. Even some of the older, more conservative quincy looked interested in his services now even if they were wary. Soichiro looked him in the eye.

"Follow me. We have a lot to talk about. Everyone, dismissed!"

Raven smiled inwardly. So far so good. The quincys dispersed rather quickly. Raven made sure to stick behind Soichiro so as not to get lost. They exited the warehouse, walked a few blocks, and entered a house. It was fairly decorative, not what one would have expected from a goal focused person like Soichiro. His mind was undoubtedly focused on the war and almost nothing else. In addition, his old house had been destroyed only a few weeks before in a scuffle between the quincy and the shinigami. Entering the living room, they sat down on facing armchairs. Soichiro started off.

"Before we begin, I must know. Why would a shinigami such as yourself want to help us quincys at your own personal risk?"

"I don't agree with wiping people out when a much simpler, bloodless solution exists," Raven answered without missing a beat. Soichiro's eyes narrowed, and his voice grew serious.

"Let me put it bluntly. How do we know we can trust you?"

"I brought you blueprints for a number of inventions that would drastically help your war effort and demonstrated one. In fact, you still have the blueprints. You could easily kill me off and mass produce them," Raven reasoned. As soon as the words rolled off his tongue, he bit it. He'd messed up. Soichiro rose to his feet and towered over him.

"Don't talk to me like I'm a fool. Our quincy pride would never allow such an immoral act, and one as intelligent as you would know that all too well. You knew we wouldn't kill you before and that we won't unless you prove to be a traitor." Soichiro thundered as he hoisted Raven up by the collar. There was the clicking of sandals as a lady in her early 20's walked in with a tray of tea. Long black hair with a little red stretched down her back. Raven took a cup gratefully as he dug his memory of the files for a name… Aha.

"So why are you here, Hayashi Mayumi?" Raven asked.

"I could ask you the same, shinigami, but if you really must know, this is my house," Mayumi replied, "On another note, how do you know my name?"

Raven raised an eyebrow. Soichiro brought him here, so he probably lived here. He was almost positive that the new quincy general wasn't married.

"I studied up on all the important quincys before I came. Didn't want to go around angering the wrong people... Thanks for the tea," Raven explained. Mayumi's eyes shifted from Raven to Soichiro and back again. How ironic.

"It looks like you're a bit too late for not angering people," she laughed as she walked back to the kitchen. Raven took a sip of his tea. Soichiro glared at him and threw him back down onto the chair, cursing himself for losing it like that. It was unbecoming of a quincy, especially a general. There were more important things to get at anyway.

"I guess I may as well tell you before you ask. I had to move in with the Hayashis after the last "peace talk" with the shinigami cost me mine. I'm no match for Kuchiki Byakuya, much less when he has a 50 shinigami strike squad behind him… I thought that your nobles lived by rules akin to ours."

Raven looked at him oddly. Reports said that Byakuya was attacked soon into the talks and the remote squad came in to help. Both couldn't be right. Soichiro gave a light laugh as he stared out the window. Raven noticed an ever watchful, scanning eye looking him over for reactions. This was getting nowhere.

"I would appreciate it if you stopped analyzing me. I have no way to prove that I'm telling the truth. Time is of the essence, and it's up to you whether you believe me or not."

Mayumi poked her head back into the living room.

"Please excuse Soichiro-kun. He's very suspicious of shinigami. You don't know how much some of them have put him through. It's a wonder he even brought you here." She chided. Raven spit out his knowledge automatically.

"His father was killed by Zaraki-taicho and your mother and brother by Kurotsuchi-taicho. He's also had two narrow escapes from the grasp of Kuchiki-taicho, each time with a number of quincys playing decoy while he escaped. This was a complete contradiction of the quincy pride as subordinates were left in a battle they couldn't possibly win."

Soichiro's head snapped towards Raven in a sharp glare. The shinigami was correct, down to the last detail, even whom had killed whom. Soichiro caught the black folder tossed in his direction.

"This is the only copy of the Gotei 13's records on the quincys. Officially, I'm here to catch a high ranking quincy for my taicho to study." Raven added as he prayed to whatever deity out there that he'd be alive tomorrow.

"That doesn't sound too reassuring," Soichiro commented. Raven breathed a sigh of relief noted that his right hand was now only held much closer to his seele schneider. Melee combat was far from the quincy's forte, but it was more than enough to send a third seat packing.

"Look, all I want to do is help. I have no proof that I'm telling the truth. It's up to you whether or not you wish to believe me. I'll be at the cemetery for the next week or so if you want to contact me." Raven said as he set down his empty teacup and walked out into the rain. No one stopped him. Once at the cemetery, he leaned up against a headstone. Pulling his cloak closer for warmth, he closed his eyes and attempted to sleep through the pattering of the rain on the pavement. He scooted a little closer as a puddle was forming underneath him. It was going to be a long night.

--

Yay! Finally, I write somewhat decent sized chapter. Drop a review if you feel like it. I'm not a beggar, requiring reviews to update, but having at least a few would be nice for feedback purposes.


	5. Beginning work

Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach

Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach. Tite Kubo does. I own my OCs, though a couple are based after Namco characters.

Sorry for the wait. I was off doing some TOS comedy.

--

Raven felt a tinge of reiatsu and stirred. It felt cold and dank… a hollow. His eyes snapped open. Quickly, he scanned the area, first visually, then closed his eyes and felt for reiatsu. Feeling it behind him, he hurled himself forward. The gravestone he'd been laying next to shattered. Something latched onto his, something human looking. Still, it felt like a hollow. He shook it off with a knee to the gut and shunpoed off. He'd heard something about this in passing. Ah yes. This was the Grand Fisher, a new hollow that the 7th and been after for months. Apparently, the humanoid half acted as bait and shape shifted into things that made its hunter hesitate. Now… where was the damage dealing half?

"Hm… A shinigami out here alone? What could you be doing here? You seem a little more able than the others."

Raven looked around in the trees and spotted a large, furry hollow with claws and monkey legs. If the reports were accurate, this was definitely the Grand Fisher. The bait appendage attached itself to the top of its head.

"Hadou 63: Raikouhou!" Raven shouted. The hollow leapt up into the air and shot its fur out. With a wave of his hand, the kido spell suddenly changed direction, shooting up and nailing the Grand Fisher in the face. Caught off guard, the hollow crahed to the ground and let out a cry of rage. He moved to pursue and was wrapped in a tight hug by the bait appendage. A claw slashed him across the chest, sending him flying into a headstone.

"Man, I really wish I hadn't used up all the energy in my glove for that pointless demonstration," Raven complained, pushing himself to his feet. He was hit again and went tumbling down the hill. He finally hit bottom and came to a stop on the sidewalk. A spine shot from the hollow's fur, burying itself into his left shoulder.

"Ugh… This really bites. Expulse!" Raven groaned. The Grand Fisher was sent hurling back against a tree, angry and relatively unharmed. Walking up, it buried its claws into his stomach and slowly began to pull.

"See? This is where defiance gets you."

There was a bright blue flash and a gust of wind. Raven felt his body collapse against the hard ground as he blacked out.

--

Raven woke up a bit more comfortable than he expected. In fact, he hadn't expected to wake up at all. Sure, his body felt like it was on fire, but that was better than being dead.

"Finally awake, eh?"

Looking up, Raven saw a quincy, Okamura Jun, standing over him, staring him down. It was a bit surprising, seeing as he was a "shoot first, ask questions later" kind of guy.

"Mayumi, he's awake!" Jun called across the room. Mayumi came running in with Shinobu right behind.

"I knew we shouldn't have left him alone!" Mayumi cried out.

"I'm fine," Raven muttered. Shinobu crossed his arms and laughed.

"I'm fine, he says. I told you he wasn't that tough. One measly hollow, and he almost dies. What was that, nine hours out of our sight?" Shinobu mocked.

"Shinobu, learn some manners," Jun said, shooting Shinobu a glare. Raven attempted to get up only to find that his entire torso was bandaged, every square inch. The bandages bound against each other, and he gave a howl of pain as he flopped back onto the bed. In the back of his mind, he was being called stupid, idiot, and imbecile.

"Geez, will you give it a rest?" Raven asked in his mind.

"Fine. How about I not share your pain?" Shoukyaku shot back. Suddenly, the pain intensified a thousand times over. Raven could literally feel his insides squishing against the bandages. Now it was soaked red and blood leaked out, staining the white sheets.

"Gomen! Gomen!"

Then the pain subsided back to bearable levels. Shoukyaku could be really obnoxious and selfish at times, but she was there when he needed help.

"I'm sorry. I had to layer the bandages to stop the bleeding," Mayumi apologized in a quiet voice.

"It's fine… Could you remove my glove for me?" Raven asked weakly. It was getting harder to breathe.

Mayumi glanced down at Raven's glove. It looked like a sanrei shuto of sorts.

"Won't you lose your powers if I do that?" she asked.

"It's different, a reiatsu storage tool," Raven responded in a raspy voice. Mayumi removed the glove, and Raven's breathing eased up a bit. It wasn't much, but every bit of extra energy helped. There was a knock at the door. Jun opened it, and Soichiro burst in.

"Is he alive?!"

"He's over there, old man," Shinobu said, rolling his eyes and pointing over at the bed. Soichiro rushed over.

"I sent Jun over to tell you that the quincys accept your services. You're lucky he got there when he did," Soichiro said.

"I always prided myself as a researched, not a fighter, Raven replied, laughing a bit. He was rebuked by his zanpakuto as a sharp wave of pain shot through him again.

--

Through the next week, Raven was confined to the bed. It was quite unfortunate as he was now well behind schedule. During that time, Soichiro had obtained a quincy cross, a sanrei shuto, a seele schneider, and a few quincys to test the possible solutions. In addition, they also prepared a lab for him in the warehouse basement. A week later, he was deemed well enough to work. Still, some were less than happy.

"I'm not going to let some 12th division freak dissect me!" Shinobu shouted as Yukari pulled him down the stairs by the foot with a rope.

"Stop being such a baby," Yukari rebuked. She liked quiet, but quiet and Shinobu just didn't go together, just the way restraint and Shinobu didn't go together.

"No! I won't go! You can't make me!"

"I believe I am," Yukari said, shooting him the "shut up or I'll kill you" glare. With one last bump, they made it to the basement. Raven was sitting in a La-z-boy recliner that had been set up there.

"Scared? All through the past tow weeks, you've been mouthing off about how we never finished our fight," Raven commented, amused.

"It isn't you I'm worried about. Its your inventions. For all I know, you could have some machine that sucks all the spirit particles from the room so I can't materialize my bow!" Shinobu shouted. Yukari stepped on his face.

"Relax, I'm not going to dissect you or anything. You just test my prototypes, and I observe to see how they're coming along. You can actually go. I don't have anything ready to test yet," Raven chided as he sat back down and continued sewing a variant of the purification arrowhead onto the back of a sanrei shuto. Angrily, Shinobu grabbed the glove and slipped it on.

"No, you-"

Since the glove wasn't completely on thanks to the incomplete sewing job, reiatsu leaked out, ripping a hole in the ceiling. Shinobu threw it off, and it exploded. An amber colored liquid poured from the ceiling and drenched Raven. He sniffed the air. Yes. It was obvious.

"You just had to hit a crate of liquor, didn't you?" Raven mentioned in a tired voice. Shinobu stared at it for a second, then grabbed a mug off the shinigami's desk and held it over his head. He waited a few seconds and took a drink.

"Oh joy," Raven said emotionlessly. This was going to be a long mission.

--

Over in the 6th division, Kratos was heading out the door. A surge of reiatsu had been reported in a Karakura Town warehouse. Byakuya had assigned him the task of recon. A seasoned shinigami, Kratos could easily pick up any tinge of reiatsu traces and find anything that might be hiding. He rushed out the door and through the Senkaimon Gate. Unfortunately, Makoto had managed to somehow notice him shunpoing there and had followed. Once there, he easily pinpointed the source of the outburst. It was just a pain that he had a hitchhiker.

"Why are you following me? Don't you need permission?" Kratos asked.

"Soi Fon-taicho tasked me with following you. Of course I have permission," Makoto replied. Kratos sighed, thinking something along the lines of "stalker." She was probably telling the truth, seeing as Soi Fon didn't trust him in the slightest. She had a chronic case of third seat distrust. As far as he knew, this included Urahara years ago, himself, Ikkaku, and probably Raven now. It wasn't a fun thing to have. Kratos made it to the warehouse and swung the door open. Immediately, he spotted the smashed crate of liquor. A few bottles were gone, but that was it. Now to come up with a good story…

A smirk made its way onto Kratos' face. He was going to multi-task. Pinpointing the local shinigami in charge of Karakura Town, he headed off. Makoto was right behind, pestering him for where he was going next. It so turned out that the local shinigami was walking about, drinking. Luckily enough, it was the same brand as the stuff in the broken crate. It was his favorite after all. Talking to Ikkaku and the other heavy drinkers had benefits after all.

"We've got what we need. Let's head back," Kratos said. Makoto followed while the local shinigami pestered them, wanting to know what he'd done to warrant the appearance of one such as Kratos. He received to attention at all. Kratos walked off to report back to Byakuya. The next day, the local shinigami was fired, and Kimura Liam was assigned to the area thanks to some paperwork rigging by Nemu. Two birds with one stone as they said. Now it was back to division training. At least the Gotei 13 was moving slowly as usual. As long as the quincys stayed hidden, the pace would probably stay slow too. His thoughts were broken by a messenger.

"Kratos-sama, your fan club wants you to make an appearance!" the messenger pretty much shouted. Kratos, though annoyed, walked out to a building near she Shinigami Women's Association building. Thankfully, Byakuya's sheer existence had firmly planted in the 6th division, so he didn't have to walk too far.

--

Over in the Kratos Aurion fan club, Ise Nanao smacked her gavel down on the table in an attempt to get everyone's attention. No effect. She massaged her temples. Kratos was right. This job was complete insanity. It was enough to be the vice-president of the Shinigami Women's Association. This job? It was worse.

"Everyone, QUIET!" Nanao screamed. All noise stopped. Matsumoto stopped attempting to drag her captain in. Soi Fon stopped trying to get Yachiru off her. Yumichika momentarily stopped trying to convince Makoto that he was the prettiest thing in Soul Society. Isane and Unohana stopped their friendly conversation and looked up. Kyoraku kept staring at all the women. Nanao swallowed and tried in vain to retain some dignity before throwing it to the winds.

"Would vice-president Kyoraku explain the new plan for our Kratos Aurion campaign, seeing as Male Shinigami Appreciation Week is coming up in a couple of months."

Hitsugaya scanned the room. Almost everyone had a weird reason for being here, and he'd only been here two minutes. Soi Fon was hereto spy for Byakuya's fan club and to find any reason that Kratos was a conspirator. Yachiru thought the world of Kratos as he sparred with Kenpachi a lot, the greatest gift you could give the taicho of the 11th. Nanao… He had no idea, but it couldn't be normal. Kyoraku had just come to follow her. Yumichika was trying to rally support for himself for MSA week. And… Matsumoto thought he was the "pinnacle of masculinity" since he could hold his liquor like no other an still not have a hangover the next day.

Then there were the people with sane reasons. Half of the 4th was here since Kratos stuck up for them. There were others from random divisions too. It was an utterly huge fan following, considering that while Kratos was well known, he wasn't even a vice-captain.

"We'll have Ichimaru join Byakuya's fan club, thus scaring everyone away. Then we'll hire Mayuri to join Hitsugaya's. I'll ask Jyuushiro to drop out, and there won't be any competition left!" Kyoraku announced, waving his hands in the air. Soi Fon shunpoed out of the room.

"My fan club meets in MY OFFICE for some reason. Mayuri is NOT getting in there!" Hitsugaya shouted, losing his cool.

"Why don't you all vote for me? After all, I'm prettier than that stiff, Kratos," Yumichika said in his usual flowery voice.

"Yumichika, I thought we were discussing MALE Shinigami Appreciation Week," Kyoraku commented, taking a swig from his bottle of sake. The room broke into peals of laughter. Makoto booted Yumichika out.

"And that's for trying to name us the Kratos Fan Club!" Makoto screeched. Hitsugaya looked over at Matsumoto, confused.

"Kratos Fan Club in acronym is KFC, some place in the living world that sells fried chicken."

Hitsugaya rolled his eyes. He was leaving. This whole thing was so childish. Just as he was about to leave, Kratos strode in. He'd never really met Kratos before. Maybe he'd make a good fukutaicho. A loud clapping filled the room as Kratos got up to the podium.

"I've been hearing some rumors flying about that I would like to dispel. First, I have no intention of allowing you to sabotage other participants in MSA week. Second, my friend, Kanzaki Raven, has not gone AWOL. Third, we are both very much single."

Some boos were heard from the crowd but were quickly silenced with a glance.

"Also," Kratos continued, "I'm sorry, but I have a report to give to Kuchiki-taicho, so I can't stay any longer."

Kratos walked out, leaving for the most part a somewhat disappointed crow. On the other hand, Hitsugaya was ecstatic. There was a good potential fukutaicho out there after all. He'd always threatened to fire Matsumoto for being horrendously lazy, and now there was even a feasible replacement. There was a tap on his shoulder.

"Taicho, you're doing the evil scheme thing again," Matsumoto commented. Hitsugaya stopped rubbing his hands together and hurriedly wiped the mad scientist grin off his face. Nanao got up and whacked her taicho in the back of the head with her ridiculously large book.

--

That's it for now. Sorry for the wait.


	6. Problems, Discipline, and More Problems

Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach

Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach. Tite Kubo does. I own my OCs, though a couple are based after Namco characters. Astonish wanted me to use some of his quincys, and the one with the really long name is his.

--

Back at the Hayashi house, Shinobu was dancing around. They'd poured concrete to seal the hole and the entrance.

"Yeah! We fooled Kratos. I knew it would work! Told ya he wasn't so smart!" Shinobu jeered as he continued to dance around stupidly. Yukari smacked him in the back of the head.

"Fool. That shinigami is extremely skilled. If he didn't know about our presence in Karakura Town before, he certainly does now."

"What? We cleaned it up and left a bottle of the same brand for the idiot local shinigami to find. Then we sealed the hole and the entrance," Shinobu defended. Raven held up a finger.

"Actually, Kratos agreed to cover for us. We just helped give him a cover story," Raven informed quietly. Shinobu fumed, angry at being corrected. There was a ringing sound. Raven answered his soul pager.

"Yeah?"

"Raven, this is Kratos. I persuaded Byakuya that the shinigami watching over Karakura Town broke into the warehouse to steal liquor or something to that effect. He was removed immediately, and Kimura Liam was placed in his stead."

"That's good news. We've been delayed a bit on this end. How close are you guys to mobilizing?"

"We're a good month away at this point. However, the 46 is arguing about pushing the campaign more quickly."

"I see. Contact me if anything new comes up," Raven finished and snapped his phone shut. Soichiro gazed out the window at the dark clouds and growing storm.

"So, it seems that all we have is a month. I shall call for the best quincy of konpaku anatomy arts in the world to assist you. Her name is Bella Genesis Garcia Melendez. She's based in Venezuela."

"Wow. That was a mouthful," Raven commented lightly, "but what are konpaku anatomy arts? Are you referring to spiritual pressure points?"

Soichiro nodded. The solution couldn't be an attachment to an arrow as it was too cumbersome in a fight. Imbuing the quincy cross or sanrei shuto with a purifier would be far more efficient. If they could figure out how zanpakuto and kido purified hollows, they could more easily create a method of replication that would suit bows.

"She'll probably get here in two or three days," Soichiro added, then walked off to make preparations. Raven took a stroll to the living room where every book on quincy and konpaku anatomy had been stacked. Picking up the first book, he began to read. If he finished now, it would mean time saved later.

--

In the Soul Society, Kratos wandered about, checking the progress of all the divisions. It was as slow as could be. That was good in the sense that training would take longer, but this also made the 46 increasingly impatient. The further behind things got, the less the government cared about how prepared the troops were.

Surprisingly, the only divisions on track were the 6th and the 8th. The 1st didn't have officers that had "time to train the division." The second already thought they were the best. The 3rd just didn't care. The 4th was pathetic at combat. The 5th had a powerful captain, but that was it. The 7th didn't really train as they were still after the Grand Fisher. The 9th was right behind them. The 10th didn't have much hands on leadership as they were drowned in paperwork. The 11th just sparred like usual, and the 12th was completely leadership deprived as well. The 13th had no able officers as their taicho was sick and their fukutaicho had to bear all the paperwork. He'd been keeping the 6th on track as was expected of him, and Nanao had harrowing training schedule for the 8th with the help of some of the seated officers.

Makoto nagged him like usual about random things, and he was continually dragged around for pointless reasons. That was normal, but nothing else was. The 46 seemed odder than usual, and he was getting a bad feeling about this war.

--

Back in the living world, several days passed with the usual taunting of Shinobu, Mayumi's hovering, Soichiro working like mad, and Yukari being anti-social. It wasn't too odd, just rather annoying. Raven snapped the 80th and final book shut. He was done. He was free until- the door opened and a certain guest arrived. This was one quincy he didn't know of. She had long bluish silver hair and grey eyes, both odd features. It was odd that he wouldn't be able to tell who she was just by that. She didn't look Japanese at all. As far as he could remember, the only prominent quincy that looked 18 or so was Shinobu.

"Are you okay? You look like you haven't slept in several days."

Raven could feel the bags under his eyes. Let's see. She wasn't from here. He'd been at this for a little more than two days. That probably meant-

"You're that shinigami who's trying to invent a purifier for quincy bows, aren't you?"

Yep. It was Bella Genesis… something… actually, a lot of somethings. She was here and was ready to work. Raven was not. He fell forward and passed out at the thought. In his mind, he was rebuked for passing out or getting hurt all the time, especially in public.

--

Raven awoke in his inner world. He still felt sleepy, but it wasn't nearly as bad as before. He looked around. This time he was inside the shattered mansion… in a bed… with his zanpakuto pouring tea for him. It seemed kind of odd. Did all zanpakuto have mood swings? A cup of hot tea was stuffed into his hands.

"I'm only helping you because I approve of what you're doing, and you won't have enough energy alone to do what you have to do."

Shoukyaku placed a hand on Raven's forehead. All of a sudden, he felt much better and much more energetic as a warm wave washed over him. Shoukyaku fell back into a chair and began to snore. Raven took a sip of his tea, noticing that she now had bags under her eyes and he didn't. If the rest held true, she had also received a huge headache too.

"Arigato, Shoukyaku."

A cold chill rushed trough the open window, bringing Raven's attention outside. It was snowing, just like last time when Shoukyaku had kicked him out. He got up and shook her lightly.

"Hey, Shoukyaku, what's with the snow?" Raven asked as he shook her again. The cold gust came to a stop, and Raven felt a dark presence looming behind him. He whirled around to see what was pretty much a reflection of himself minus the glasses. Was he another inhabitant of his mind?

"Hey, who're you? I'm Raven. You probably know me even if I don't know you," Raven said with a smile. His doppelganger didn't look so happy.

"Wipe that stupid grin off your face. I'm Kanzaki Nevar, and I'm taking my body back," he replied in a stony voice. He stuck out his hand, and a blade of pure ice materialized. He raised it up into the air, and Raven summoned Shoukyaku's sword form.

"Gyouko Senkou."

Nevar dashed at Raven and disappeared, materializing behind him a moment later. Raven looked down and saw that his entire body was coated in ice.

"Expulse!"

A shockwave blasted the ice off Raven. Nevar turned around and cocked an eyebrow, surprised but unimpressed. With a swift kick, Raven was sent sailing out the open window. In a blur of shunpo, his pursuer caught up with him, grounding him with a sharp kick. It was quickly followed up with a wave of ice. Raven recovered quickly enough to block most of the ice with his zanpakuto, but the shards still managed to get by, cutting into his right shoulder.

"Ouch…"

"You're far too weak to even think about beating me. Perhaps you'd be a challenge in several centuries, but I'm not about to wait that long," Nevar taunted as he landed, resting a foot on Raven's head.

"Hadou 31: Shakkahou!"

A steam of flame shot out from Raven's palms, earning him a little breathing room but not much. In a flash, he was back on his feet to pursue. By now it was apparent that his opponent had more raw speed, a lot more. The only way he was going to live was to not let him attack at his leisure.

"Bakudo 9: Geki!"

A red reiatsu surrounded Nevar for all of one second before he broke free, rather annoyed now.

"You little insect, I'll kill you!" Nevar raged, reiatsu swirling around him, "Absolute Zero."

Nevar pointed his blade at Raven, tapping him. A moment later, he was encased in a block of ice, unable to move an inch. Then it shattered, leaving Raven battered and beaten on the ground.

"Pathetic," Nevar scoffed. A black blur slammed into him, a gash appearing across his chest, followed by a second and a third.

"Gyouko Chitai!" Nevar shouted before he could be hit for a fourth time. A barrier of ice shot up around him, freezing everything nearby. Four blades had been caught. Glancing around, he saw each owner disappear, followed by the blades. Then one more cut shattered his defense. Seeing an attack from his right, Nevar moved to block only to have his attacker disappear into a wisp of smoke. He looked down and let out a cry of rage. Raven was gone, probably halfway across his inner world by now. He felt another cut, this time across his back.

"Shoukyaku, you can't protect him forever!" Nevar seethed, firing ice in all directions. Shoukyaku or rather her foot materialized in front of him and gave his face a warm welcome. He skidded back and slammed into a tree.

"Just watch me," Shoukyaku replied in a mocking voice. Ice shot up around Nevar, and then melted, leaving nothing behind. A voice called out from the wind.

"You know just as well as I that I've only got one percent of my powers. I'm slowly getting them back, and you two won't be able to keep up for long."

The cold chill went away, and the snow stopped. Shoukyaku sighed. Things were getting complicated, and they only had so much time. Research was good for the quincy but not for keeping up with this demon. She was going to have to come clean soon… at least partly. For now, partly would be enough.

--

Raven awoke with a start, snapping upright. His head really hurt. Who was that Nevar guy anyway? He was creepy and really strong. Wait. Didn't he say something about taking over his body?

"I lost. Why am I still in control?"

"What do you mean, still in control?" someone asked. Shinobu. Raven kicked himself for saying that out loud, then received a mental whack in the back of the head for the same reason.

"Sorry, I just blanked," Raven covered pathetically.

"Whatever. Our little foreign friend is waiting for you. I heard that you fainted on sight," Shinobu said as he dragged Raven over to the next room, ignoring all protests and explanations that spewed from the shinigami's mouth. He didn't believe the boy, but prying wouldn't get anywhere. Besides, it didn't concern him, so why go through the effort of finding out what was going on? He told himself this three times before they even got out the door. Genesis was waiting for him in the next room.

"How are you feeling? You look more rested. I'm Genesis, the quincy anatomy expert from Venezuela," Genesis greeted.

"I'm Kanzaki Raven, a shinigami. I hope you won't think badly of me for it," Raven replied. He really hoped she wasn't going to hold it against him. If she did, this was going to be the longest project of his life. In fact, he got the feeling that it was going to be a long project either way. Shinobu slapped him on the back.

"Don't worry about it, man. She's only been here a few hours, but teamwork has been spewing out of her mouth non-stop since," Shinobu reassured him much to the displeasure of certain others. He shrugged off the holes being glared into his back. He'd never really cared what others thought of him anyway, so why start now?

"For your information, teamwork is the only way we'll all get through this alive!" Genesis screeched at Shinobu. Raven sweatdropped. It really didn't take long for newcomers to get off on the wrong foot with the brash quincy. Then again, it wasn't too hard to believe when Shinobu's legendary rudeness and bad temper were taken into account.

"Now, why don't we sit down and discuss-"

"How about not!" the two shot back, giving Raven a face full of fist. Shinobu realized what he was doing first and actually stopped a couple inches short. Genesis made contact and was soon apologizing profusely. Ever the opportunist, Shinobu began a rant about hitting people who were putting their lives on the line to help. Raven didn't even bother to try to stop him. Even a week from now, the subject would still probably come up from time to time. There were more important things to do anyway such as asking Shoukyaku about Nevar. He sat on the couch and held up his zanpakuto so no one would think he was insane.

"Shoukyaku, who was that guy?" Raven asked cautiously.

"He's Kanzaki Nevar, another inhabitant of your mind, a dangerous one. You'd best avoid him until you get stronger, much stronger. I won't be able to protect you forever," Shoukyaku relied.

"You didn't answer my question. Stop dodging it."

"All I can really say is that he's a part of you."

"I already know that! It wasn't a hollow. There wasn't a mask. It wasn't a shinigami since it was using something besides kido. It definitely wasn't a quincy, so what was it? Answer me!"

There was a silence. Shinobu and Genesis stopped their screaming match and looked over.

"Don't you ignore me! This is important!"

Raven's eyebrow twitched. Mentally, Shoukyaku was sticking her tongue out at him.

"Oh yeah?! Let's see what you do when I leave you in a muddy ditch!" Raven threatened.

"You wouldn't dare!" Shoukyaku screeched.

"Yes I would!" Raven shouted back. With a huff, he got up and walked out the door with his zanpakuto screeching all the way. Shinobu and Genesis poked their heads out the door, curious. Soon, Soichiro was watching from his office window in interest as well as a number of quincys from the living room window. Raven stood over the nearest patch of dirt. It was still wet from the downpour that had been going on all week. Great.

"Hey, what're you doing?" Shinobu asked.

"Discipline."

With that, Raven stuck Shoukyaku into the mud and began to stir. The screams of protest increased. Most of the quincys were gaping now.

"Ready to answer now?"

There was more silence.

"Shinobu."

"Yeah?"

"Gimme your Ipod."

Shinobu shrugged, pulled his Ipod out of his pocket and tossed it to Raven who popped in the earpieces and turned up the volume. The myth that all shinigami got along with their zanpakuto was shattered into a million pieces.

--

By the next day, Shinobu and Genesis had stopped bickering to the point that work could be done. The bid to get Shoukyaku to talk had been unsuccessful so far, but he wasn't about to give up just yet. At this point, work was more discussion than labor, so Raven kept stirring Shoukyaku in the ditch while he and Genesis bounced possible solutions off each other. Each was either impractical for combat use, flawed, or just plain stupid.

"Well, I've created an attachment for quincy arrows that will make them purify hollows, but I did it with shavings generously given to me by my zanpakuto. It can't be mass produced," Raven began. He knew that it was an extremely temporary solution that didn't even really give them a lead on how to solve anything long term. In other words, it was useless.

"What exactly did you want me here for anyway?" Genesis asked.

"To tell you the truth, I didn't ask. Soichiro thought you would be of help, and I agreed. I need to know how the quincys work in order to figure out what's different between us besides different choice in weapons and the fact that you're alive while we're dead. You're an expert on quincy and konpaku anatomy. How do quincys destroy hollows? How do your bows work?"

Raven received a blank stare not only from Genesis but from every quincy in the area. There were outcries of "spy," "traitor," and "arrogant shinigami." Perhaps it hadn't been the best move. Several went as far as to bring out their bows. Shinobu immediately hauled Raven away and into the house.

"Baka, you've got to be more careful about how you phrase things here," Shinobu reprimanded Raven with a smack to the head, "Look, I know you'll need that information to do what you need to do, but asking out in the open like that is asking for trouble."

"You'll explain it, then?" Raven asked. Shinobu threw up his hands in defeat.

"Fine. The quincys pull reishi from the air and channel it through a quincy cross or a sanrei shuto to make a spirit bow. Then we focus on protecting whatever and destroying the hollow, and an arrow forms. Then we fire, and the hollow dies. End of story." Shinobu finished with a smile, as if everything was so simple. So much for getting the finer points of the process, but it was unlikely that Shinobu even knew enough to explain it. He probably did half the stuff subconsciously.

"Well, that was blunt," Raven muttered. It was far from detailed, but it was the best he was going to get for now. He ambled over to the couch and took a snooze. He was still tired, and Shoukyaku would probably kill him if he had to borrow more energy so soon. She was probably bushed after taking his fatigue, then screeching at him for hours. Keeping his head was a good thing.

--

RING!!

Raven woke with a start, falling off the couch. He picked up his soul pager and flipped it open. It was Kratos' number.

"Yeah? What is it, Kratos" Raven asked, yawning.

"Raven, the fools over at the 46 just dispatched the second, third, fifth, seventh, ninth, and eleventh divisions to the living world. The third is going to descend on Japan in ten minutes."

"Yeah, yeah. I'll deal with it in the morning…" Raven responded in a tired voice as he buried his face in the couch.

"Fool! Almost half of the Gotei 13 is launching an attack right now!"

That got Raven's attention this time.

"Oh crap."

--

That's all we have for now. There will be a brief delay before the next chapter as I have another paper to write.


	7. The Battle of Japan

Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach

Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach. Tite Kubo does. I own my OCs. Gyo Rushin and all quincys that aren't from Japan belong to Astonish.

Well, let's keep moving. We're up to chapter 7 now, and we're just getting warmed up.

--

Raven hauled himself off the couch and ran out of the room. Luck really hated him. He ran down the hall, kicking each door as he went by. Within a minute, a dozen angry quincys were glaring him down.

"I just received word that the 46 ordered a worldwide assault on the quincys!"

The glares increased. One lifted Raven up by the collar, Gyo Rushin, one of the few strong man quincys.

"You told us that it would be at least a month before an attack," Rushin seethed. If anything, Rushin hated trickery, dishonesty, and anything related. A few years ago, in his early 20's, he used to be on good terms with a number of shinigami, including Komamura. Rumor also had it that he used to go out womanizing with Shinobu and Kyoraku. Such things were no longer safe anymore, though.

"Look, my sources aren't perfect. None of the taichos even knew until twenty minutes ago," Raven reasoned. They were wasting precious time. Soichiro's door slid open.

"All of you, stop it. This bickering is pointless. Let's talk this out slowly," Soichiro said in a tired voice. Shinobu stepped up.

"Fools! Four eyes wouldn't dare do something that'd get you all mad if it weren't an emergency!"

Several quincys looked at each other. It was plausible, and the 46 had been erratic lately.

"Old man, I don't think we have time for a nice chat. Raven, how much time have we got?"

By now, every quincy was glaring holes into Shinobu. Only he would have the gall to call their top general an old man. Soichiro bit back the urge to shoot back a retort, saying that he was only 34, hardly an old man. Still, even as disrespectful as he was, Shinobu's instincts usually served the quincys well.

"We have eight minutes," Raven replied solemnly, "The third division will attack Japan."

Those in the room stared at Raven in disbelief. An entire division would cause huge casualties not with skill but sheer numbers. There was a beeping sound, signaling an update from Kratos. Scouts had confirmed quincy presence in Japan, so the 12th division was being sent as well.

"The 2nd and 11th are going to attack America. The 5th is attacking Europe. The 9th is attacking Central America, and the 7th is attacking China. The 3rd is coming here, and the 12th is coming with them."

The entire room was silent. That was seven divisions, more than half of the Gotei 13's fighting force. At least the strongest taichos weren't in this attack, but it wasn't promising either way. Soichiro swept from the room and tapped a floorboard several times in different places. It fell out, revealing a small hatch and a ladder. He quickly descended and motioned for Raven to follow. Rushin reluctantly released the shinigami, allowing him to fall to the floor with a thud. Raven got up and hurried down the ladder. They had about six minutes. At the bottom of the ladder, Raven entered a white training room. He and Soichiro entered a closed off area with a number of computer screens.

"I'm going to contact all the other quincy factions. You're in charge of the battle for Japan. Do whatever you need to do to buy enough time for the others to hide themselves. Every quincy in the country can contact with this terminal. I have to deal with the worldwide problem."

With that, Soichiro was off. He flipped open his cell phone and began to dial. Raven sat down at the chair in front of the terminal and turned back to the screens. He had five minutes left. A cold, chilly voice resounded in the back of his head.

"Hello, Raven. What have you been up to?"

A bead of sweat rolled down Raven forehead. Where was Shoukyaku?

"Your little friend is still asleep from fending me off last time. Besides, you're not bad, just confused. You don't understand what war is like. I'm sure you'll find out soon."

"Nevar, what do you want? I'm busy." Raven replied, trying to keep a straight face.

His double smiled widely with an insane grin.

"Don't be so hostile. I just want to show you reality and open your eyes. You'll understand my position soon enough."

"No thanks. Maybe later," Raven replied as he sat there, running scenarios through his head. Each one was flawed in one way or another.

"So rude. I guess I won't help you save the quincys then."

Raven froze. Did he just hear that right?

"What?"

"For you to see what I want you to see, you'll have to live, now won't you?" came Nevar's chilling voice again. A chill ran up Raven's spine. His left and grasped a map and placed it on a table. Then he picked up a pen and began to draw some lines. Raven's eyes widened as a battle plan began to unfold on the map. Then he opened a virtual map on the quincy terminal, issuing orders, only his hand was moving by itself. Rushin and Shinobu were shown dispatched to Yokohama. One minute left. A voice came over the communicator.

"Raven, are you sure about this? Yokohama? There's almost no quincy population there."

It was Shinobu. Raven heard the creepy voice in the back of his head once more.

"Give the orders."

"Y-yes. Yokohama. Once there, you'll release a small amount of hollow bait and cause a riot outside the city. I'll give you further instructions one the way," Raven ordered shakily. Shinobu hung up and was off with Rushin right behind. Time was up. The attack had begun. Immediately, he got to work, contacting every patch of quincys in the country to usher everyone into hiding. About a half hour later, he was done. Then he dispatched Yukari, Mayumi, and Okumura Jun to help defend China, namely Beijing. It would be a waste for them to sit around the house, and they were all quite capable of defending themselves. Now it was a matter of disrupting the searches. Even in hiding, two divisions could easily sniff most of them out.

"Now, let's continue…" Nevar drawled on calmly, almost as though this was a game.

Raven's hand was soon put to work again, drawing out further plans on the virtual map. Then it lifted the reiatsu concealing field over Karakura Town.

"What do you think you're doing?!" Raven yelled in frustration.

"You see, we're in between Kyoto and Osaka. The shinigami will start in Tokyo. Now that we've shown ourselves, they'll come for us. By the time they get halfway here, Shinobu and Rushin will be causing an uproar in Yokohama. They'll turn back, wasting time." Nevar explained as though he were talking to a child. Of course the child would be traumatized for life, but Raven knew he was being treated like he was stupid. As soon as Nevar had finished speaking, Raven's hand was moving again, ordering the evacuation and wiring of the city of Urawa, a city where almost the entire population was composed of quincys. A beep signaled an incoming message from Shinobu.

"Hey Raven, we released the hollow bait. Both divisions are here. Your crazy captain is bent on catching one of us to dissect. Now what?"

"If I order the detonation of Urawa, hundreds of shinigami die," Raven thought in the back of his head.

"What's worth more to you? Is it thousands of quincys and thousands of shinigami or just maybe a hundred shinigami or so? If you don't give the order, we get caught," came Nevar's voice again. After thinking about it briefly, Raven closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

"Hiren Kyaku to Urawa, putting out as much reiatsu as you can. Then detonate the city. I've already had it evacuated."

Raven closed communications.

"Excellent… Once those two detonate the city, order the quincys in Nagano to flee here quietly." Nevar continued. Raven was beginning to see what his crafty double was doing. He was playing the shinigami for fools. Doing as he was told, then sent orders for Shinobu and Rushin to suppress their reiatsu and head home. Then he leaned back in the chair and sighed. It was over. Now all he could do was wait.

"Now, Nevar, why did you help me?" Raven asked.

"Well, you'll find out eventually. Shoukyaku is waking up, so I'm afraid it is time for me to disappear for now." Nevar said. A moment later, his presence was gone. A beep broke Raven's thoughts. The shinigami had all retreated back to the Seireitei. Opening all communications, Raven ordered a head count of casualties and any shinigami contact.

"No casualties and no shinigami contact, Sir."

No casualties and no shinigami contact, Sir."

No casualties and no shinigami contact, Sir."

"One minor injury during the scramble of the evacuation but no deaths or shinigami contact, Sir."

"No casualties and no shinigami contact, Sir."

Raven fell back in the chair again, trying to wrap his mind around these events. Genesis tapped him on the shoulder. He was so focused that he hadn't even noticed her approach.

"Soichiro would like your report now that the battle was over," Genesis informed Raven kindly. Nodding, he glanced over the reports and walked upstairs to Soichiro's office. He poked his head in the door. The top general of the quincys was not doing so well. He had his head buried in his hands as he looked over the reports of the battles across the world.

"American division, 78 percent dead, 1 percent wounded. European division, 59 percent dead, 28 percent wounded. Central American division, 36 percent dead, 41 percent wounded. Chinese division, 17 percent dead, 61 percent wounded…" Soichiro drawled on with sorrow. Raven stepped inside. The top general of the quincys looked up with tired eyes.

"Sir, one injury, no deaths. Three hundred and sixty-five unseated shinigami were injured or killed." Raven murmured quietly. Soichiro looked at him wide eyed and grabbed the reports.

"You… What kind of general are you?" he whispered softly. This had to be some kind of joke. There was no way they could have survived thousands of shinigami could have swept across the country with the only injury they sustained was a trip while doing the Hiren Kyaku. There must have been almost no battle at all. Shinobu walked in, laughing his head off. An upset looking Rushin was right behind him.

"Report. How did it go?" Soichiro ordered.

"We led those fools in a wild goose chase across the country. They were so occupied with us and false alarms that they're now scouring the mountains around Nagano in small search waves. The main forces have retreated," Shinobu answered.

"You two are serious, aren't you? We really won."

"No, we lost! Everything is destroyed! There's no Japan left!" Shinobu cried out in his typical sarcastic idiocy. Rushin smacked him in the head, knowing full well what had happened everywhere else except Africa and Australia. Neither continent really had any quincy presence at all, so there was no attack there. Soichiro smiled slightly and got to his feet.

"Excuse me. I have to have a meeting with the other quincy generals." Soichiro said as he ambled towards the door.

"With what just happened, Raven out to come too," Shinobu suggested jokingly. He was elbowed in the ribs for butting in where he wasn't wanted.

"Maybe someday, but now is not the time. The quincys need to recover, and many of the other generals would be less than understanding. Expect some guests as well."

With that, Soichiro was gone. Rushin moved to leave as well.

"Oh no, you don't. I got more of them than you. You lost the bet, so pay up," Shinobu ordered, palms open. A small stack of bills was deposited into it and greeted warmly as the quincy ran off to horde his winnings.

--

Back in Soul Society, Kratos rushed into the 6th division office.

"Kuchiki-taicho, over a thousand quincys have somehow slipped into Soul Society and are making their way through the Rukongai," Kratos informed his taicho. In less than five minutes, the 6th was on the move. It wasn't that he wanted the quincys destroyed, but those who invaded had to be destroyed. At least in this case, the shinigami were not the guilty party. The 8th, 10th, and 13th divisions were close behind. Ukitake was in the 4th after another coughing fit, so Shiba Kaien became the active commander. All in all, it was going to be a slaughter. One thing said it all, and that was the face of Kyoraku-taicho. He'd been visiting Ukitake in the 4th, and he was less than happy to be called out to fight. Naturally, the 8th ended up in the front lines. The 10th was ordered to comb the opposite side in case of a sneak attack.

In the 45th district, a rain of arrows cut down a group of patrolling shinigami. They were making good time, almost halfway through the Rukongai with almost no substantial resistance. About 2300 quincys were there. The head quincy in China, Li Shin had organized a counter invasion to draw attention away from the living world. Though only 21, he was the next in line after the dozen higher ranked quincys in the country were killed when Komamura's bankai crashed their meeting. At first, many had griped over his taking charge. After all, he stood at a hardly imposing 5-5, his curly black hair made him stick out like a sore thumb, and he looked like a wimp. Still, it wasn't long before they agreed to the counter attack when their friends were getting slaughtered out there. The European division approached from the opposite side while the American divisions joined the Chinese. With another barrage, another wave of shinigami was cut down. A short woman with shoulder length black hair was quickly ushering a group of children indoors.

"Chire, Senbonzakura."

"Hana kaze midarete kashin haki, tenpuu midarete tenma warau, Katen Kyokotsu."

"Suiten sakamake, Nejibana."

"Tenza shikata, Otsutosei."

An army of pink petals shot out to deflect the barrage of arrows. A wave of water rushed through the streets. Kyoraku Shunsui shunpoed forward, mowing through the quincy lines in a dance of death. The stragglers panicked and began firing in all directions. Kaien rushed forward and rammed his trident into the nearest quincy, then threw him off to deflect a barrage of arrows by whirling it around. Up on a rooftop stood the only unconcerned quincy.

"Gotcha."

"Watch out! On the roof!" called out the woman in the street.

Byakuya's eyes snapped up to the roof. Shin aimed at taicho and fired away only to have a swarm of petals deflect the attack. Without missing a beat, he dismissed his bow and reformed it into what looked like a sniper rifle and fired again. The beam punched straight through the petals. Byakuya's eyes widened. Kratos stepped in front of him and stabbed. The shot scattered in all directions, leveling the closest buildings. The woman who was ushering the children to safety was shot through the shoulder. Byakuya locked eyes with the quincy on the roof.

"Bankai. Senbonzakura Kageyoshi."

Kyoraku whistled.

"They're in for it now."

Two rows of swords rose up from the ground. They scattered into millions of pink petals, slicing away at every quincy in the area. Shin fired another sniper shot into the swarm. It was consumed, and the petals turned toward him. A senkaimon gate opened behind him, and a hand yanked the Chinese quincy to safety. Within minutes, every surviving quincy was gone, albeit that only amounted to a couple hundred, and most of them were injured. Kaien flipped open his soul pager.

"We need a team from the 4th in the West Rukongai as soon as possible. A cleanup crew would be good too."

Byakuya walked over to the woman who had warned him of the quincy sniper. Her shoulder was bleeding profusely.

"You will tell me your name, and you will receive proper medical treatment."

"Hisana…"

With that, Byakuya picked up the woman himself and shunpoed back to the Kuchiki mansion. It was only fair as the 4th would be far too busy to help those from the Rukongai.

--

Back in the living world, Soichiro was busy chewing out all the quincy leaders.

"Li Shin! Invading the Soul Society was short sighted and reckless! Now over 2000 quincy have died that would not have otherwise, and any hope we may have had for peace may just have been shattered!" Soichiro thundered. Then he turned to a short dark skinned boy with spiky black hair. Next to him stood a brunette with bluish green eyes.

"Anandus Harshi and Olivia Lu! You both are new to politics, but parading through the streets with thousands of quincys to get to the Seireitei defies all logic and common sense! It was suicide! Plus, the attacking divisions paid no heed to your movements! All that happened was the removal of the defenses of every major country!"

Then Soichiro's eyes flashed over to a redhead with green eyes who was putting on her makeup. His eyebrow twitched.

"Rosa Maria de Melquiades. Put that stuff away when I'm lecturing you!"

The makeup fell to the floor, and Soichiro moved on to the last one. She was an ex-model with dirty blonde hair and sad brown eyes.

"And miss Sasha Carter. You did the best with your situation, but the attack should have been avoided as it was doomed to fail, both in war and in politics. You will all move in. This is the new quincy base of operations. Dismissed."

"What gives you the right to make that call?!" Anandus retorted. He received a sharp glare.

"Look. Japan has more quincys left than all of your countries combined. You all had your chance, and you blew it! Now you're all going to stay so I can keep an eye on you." Soichiro answered, voice laced with venom.

"That's impossible! Japan's quincy division was the smallest!" Anandus shot back. There were a few murmurs of agreement.

"Japan's new general prevented any deaths during the invasion-" Soichiro started.

"Yeah right! There isn't a quincy out there with that kind of genius!" Anandus piped up. Soichiro opened his mouth to silence the young quincy but was interrupted as Shinobu dragged Raven through the door.

"Come on, some coffee would do you good. It helps relieve the stress."

"No… I'm tired. I just wanna sleep…"

The foreign quincys stared.

"What's that shinigami doing here?!" Rosa screeched at Soichiro.

"That's Japan's new general and your new boss."

Shinobu stopped dragging Raven. The reaction was a mix of slacked jaws and glares. Raven looked uneasily at the crowd and gave a small wave. Did he just hear that right? He was a scientist, not a general. In fact, he was pretty much a puppet for that battle. In fact, he was even terrible at chess. He'd lost to Shinobu the other day, proof of his strategic incapability. In his head, he was given a whack. Apparently, he was going to have inner world chess lessons for an hour a day until he got decent. He was just supposed to come to the living world and design some kind of purifier. He hadn't asked for this. Man, life was so unfair.

--

That's all for now. I promise my other stories will be updated soon. One will come tomorrow hopefully, then the rest a week later once summer school is over.


	8. Tutoring

Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach

Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach. Tite Kubo does. I own my OCs. Astonish owns the foreign quincys. Aku zoku zan is Saito trademark from Rurouni Kenshin.

Well, its time for chapter 8. It is a bit of a filler, but oh well. There are some important points for later.

--

Before Raven could spout out some loud and embarrassing declination of the rank of general, he received a whack in the head from Shoukyaku. As usual, he received the "don't sound stupid" speech again.

"Um… Aren't I here for research?" Raven asked uneasily. It probably wasn't going to work, but it was worth a shot.

"Yes, but you'd be an advisor more than a general. You can delegate the work out to others. All we need is a simple battle plan to hold out until you and Genesis finish inventing a hollow purifier," Soichiro answered. Raven cursed his luck. He really didn't have much room to argue without spilling the beans about Nevar.

"Fine, I'll do it," Raven sighed. The reluctance in his voice was noted, but Soichiro shrugged it off as survival was top priority. Plus, there were no verbal complaints, so it couldn't have been that important. Before anything else could happen, Shinobu dragged Raven away in pursuit of the now much needed coffee.

--

In the 10th division office, Hitsugaya's eye twitched. His fan club had scrammed. This was good. He never thought he'd actually be angry that they were gone, but he couldn't say he was surprised. Mayuri was sitting in the middle of the room on the floor. Kyoraku-taicho made good on his word. That made him wonder if-

A wave of angry reiatsu washed over the Seireitei. Yep. Ichimaru was definitely in Byakuya's office. What he didn't know was that so were half of the 11th and some 1500 bottles of sake. Needless to say, the office was destroyed.

In the 2nd, the SMC was on the move. Soi Fon barked out orders for another search of the warehouse. There was no way the local shinigami stole the liquor. He'd also been paying an unusual amount of attention to Karakura Town. Not trusting Makoto due to her Kratos worship or Ohmaeda due to his incompetence, someone else would have to lead the search. Let's see… Who would be nosy enough to tail him for no reason at all yet be competent enough to get the job done? That was easy.

"You have a mission, Yamamoto Karin. You are to spy on Aurion Kratos and Kimura Liam. Here are the details," Soi Fon said as she slid a folder across her desk. If treason was on Kratos' agenda, he most likely would have planted an ally as the new local shinigami. The other seated members looked at her curiously. Karin, though skilled, was still near the weakest of them, hardly fit to tail someone suspected of treason with at least fukutaicho skill.

"Taicho, why me? I'm sure someone else might be more suited for this kind of mission," Karin stuttered. If Kratos found out what she was doing- and he certainly would, she was dead. Ohmaeda took a large bite out of his doughnut, glad that he wasn't being ordered to tail Kratos Aurion. Even he knew better than to tail a man who was rumored to spar with Kenpachi several times a week.

"That is final."

Karin flinched and shunpoed out before she incurred the wrath of her taicho. Halfway to the 6th, she realized that the only way she was going to walk away from this was to stalk Kratos with his full knowledge. She hated to say it, but she was going to have to put up the Kratos worshipping façade that was infecting the Gotei 13. Her luck was only to get worse. No sooner had she gotten to the 6th did a wave of reiatsu knock her to the ground. A random shinigami came flying past her. Then there was a blast of kido followed by another random shinigami.

"Drive back the 11th!"

A pair of shinigami crashed through the wall. This time, they were both ones she knew. Great. Now she was in the middle of a fight between Kratos and Kenpachi. Off came an eye patch, and she collapsed to the ground, struggling to breathe.

"Tenza shikata, Otsutosei!"

Karin felt a hand grab the back of her shirt. Well, at least Soi Fon would be getting what she wanted. Then she felt herself being flung into the distance. With a crash, she landed on her butt somewhere near the 5th division office. This was hardly going to be a pleasant mission.

--

Back in Soichiro's house, Raven had crashed on the couch again. However, it was hardly going to earn him any peace and quiet, nor was it going to simplify his life.

"Baka! No wonder you make a fool of yourself in life! You can't even keep your dignity on a chess board!"

Yes. His zanpakuto was giving him chess lessons… and he was failing miserably. He either died early on or spent the entire game getting chased around the board. It was embarrassing. A couple moves later, he lost… again. Shoukyaku was an awesome zanpakuto, but she either couldn't or wouldn't teach worth anything. All that had happened was that he'd been pounded into the ground over and over for the last couple hours.

"Geez. Can't you let me alone? This isn't important…"

Raven received yet another whack in the head. The chess board was dismissed, and Shoukyaku left. A large stack of books appeared out of thin air and landed on his head, a stack of guides. He let out a long sigh. This wasn't going to just fade into obscurity.

"Heh. Problems already?"

"Great… You're back again," Raven muttered without turning around. It wasn't like he needed to. There was only one other inhabitant in his mind… he hoped. Anyway, only Nevar sounded this creepy all the time.

"You're so unappreciative," Nevar huffed, "I save the Japanese quincy division, and this is the thanks I get?"

"I still don't trust you," Raven replied stonily.

With a wave of his hand, Nevar summoned the chess board again.

"So, would you be interested in being good enough to shut up your zanpakuto?"

"Heh. What makes you think I'm even capable of beating her? I'd lose to a six year old," Raven scoffed. Maybe he was exaggerating a little bit, but he was really terrible.

"I am sure you have potential. You just have to unlock it. Learn this and you could easily do the work of a general without relying on me."

After thinking it over, Raven gave a slow nod. It wasn't like he trusted his mind's shady inhabitant, but it was better to take up the offer for now. How could learning how to play chess come back to haunt him anyway?

"Let's begin, then," Nevar said lazily, "However, I want to see just how pathetic you are first." With a wave of his hand, a pawn moved on the board. Raven tried to do the same but found he couldn't.

"Look, I've got better things to do. If you can't do what I do, just pick up the stupid piece."

Grumbling, Raven pushed a pawn forward, and the game began… and soon ended in less than a minute. A loud groan was heard.

"Okay, you need to stop running like a coward and fight back. You're too much of a chicken." Nevar taunted.

"Whatever."

Without warning, the chess board disappeared, and a torrent of ice shot up from the ground. Raven threw his head back to avoid losing it. He was rewarded with another blast of ice. This one connected, and he was sent reeling back. It seemed that he just couldn't catch a break these days. Then again, when had he ever been cut a break? He shook his head, not wanting to think about it. A rain of ice shards shredded his cloak.

"Fool! Stop being so absentminded and concentrate!" Nevar scolded as he launched more ice shards at the fleeing shinigami. This time, Raven blocked with a burst of kido. There wasn't even enough time for a sigh of relief as not shards of ice but a rain of lightning came down. Not wanting to test whether he could safely block or not, Raven shunpoed away.

"No running away now…" came Nevar's voice from all directions. Raven felt around for a reiatsu force, a glimpse, anything to target. It was plain as day, but it came from everywhere, easy to feel but impossible to track due to the sheer speed. On top of that, the one in need of mental therapy was laughing.

"Wait… If he's laughing…"

Without much of a better plan, Raven hurled his zanpakuto blindly. If Nevar was really going that fast and wasn't paying attention, then-

"Urk!"

Raven looked up and saw his zanpakuto lodged in Nevar's chest. The laughing stopped. He began to clap.

"Very nice. You realized that I was moving so fast that I'd hit any attack you sent if I wasn't paying attention," Nevar praised lightly as he yanked the blade out and tossed it back to its owner. He muttered a few words and traced a rune with his finger. There was a green glow, and all the wounds healed over. Raven could only gape.

"But I- You-" Raven sputtered.

"Now, now, I'm not that easy to kill. Oh well. It seems you got the point, though. That's enough for now."

There was a flash, and Raven descended back into his peaceful sleep. No sooner than he settled in, then he felt himself collide with the rug. Something clamped on his foot and yanked him back. He clutched his face.

"Rug burn!!"

Then a shockwave went through the room as a white gauntlet came down inches from his face. Raven looked back and saw that it was Shinobu that had kept his head intact. Looking the other way, he saw that the owner of the knuckles was Anandus. Hold a sec. Knuckles?! Since when did a quincy use knuckles? A clapping sound was heard from behind. Yukari.

"Shinobu, for once it wasn't you who wrecking Mayumi's house. It is truly a miracle."

Shinobu's eye twitched.

"How can you always be so freaking calm?!"

He was answered with a shrug. Talented or not, Shinobu was hot headed. Not even he was going to deny that. At the same time, he was hardly the center of attention. Yukari was glaring holes into Anandus who then stared at the floor and the large hole where his fist was a moment ago.

"I prefer fighting with my fists, so I manifested his reishi into a pair of knuckles rather than a bow," Anandus proclaimed loudly, thumping his chest in an attempt to look manly. It was quickly shot down.

"The rumor mill says that the last time you tried to use a bow you managed to miss a target five feet away and set a house on fire," Yukari informed, holding up a camcorder.

"Where did you get that?!" Anandus shouted as he made a dive for the device in Yukari's hand. He was of course doomed to fail as the camcorder was yanked out of reach.

"Fool. Just put your knuckles away and go quietly before you cause any more damage." Yukari snapped. Anandus brought up his knuckles and dropped into a fighting stance.

"No way! I haven't had this much fun in a long time. I couldn't get a decent challenge over in America. Fighting Shinobu is much more entertaining."

"Very well. Have it your way. Just don't come crying to me later."

With that, Yukari dragged Anandus off to the training grounds in the basement. Raven found himself being dragged along as well with Shinobu doing the pulling.

"Hey, hey, don't get me involved with this! I've got enough trouble as it is!" Raven complained. All he got was some jumbled talk about how fun this was going to be. Yukari kicked her opponent down the stairs. He landed in a heap at the bottom, and a long stream of profanity traveled up the staircase. Yukari glided down the steps to deliver a whole lot of pain.

"Hey Shinobu, how much stronger than you is Yukari anyway?" Raven asked.

"If you're trying to gauge the outcome of this match, don't. Just watch."

"In other words, this is going to be a slaughter."

Not wanting to talk anymore, Shinobu ran down the stairs, still dragging Raven along. This time, the latter didn't struggle. Rightfully or not, he was going to write this off as research of quincy techniques.

In the basement, Anandus had charged up his spirit knuckles to maximum power, bent on beating the demanding quincy into the ground. Yukari stood there with a bored look, half ignoring the one glaring daggers at her. Raven noted that Anandus was putting out pressure equal to a fukutaicho, perhaps a bit more. Yukari had a very small bubble of reiatsu around her, controlled so it was hard to notice but strong enough to match any attempts to pressure her. She acted almost like Byakuya. He'd done it whenever the occasional fool tried to challenge him. At the same time, it was hardly a feat to be done by a novice.

"She's really good," Raven commented. Shinobu just smirked. Anandus charged forward, leveling his fist with Yukari's face.

"You just broke the first rule of battle! Never charge straight ahead unless you're an idiot!" Shinobu called out.

"You're the idiot, Shinobu. You can't break that rule due to the loophole," Yukari called back. Shinobu scratched his head.

"She means that if you're charging at someone who's probably ten times stronger than you, you're already an idiot anyway."

Yukari blocked the knuckles with her bare hand, then booted Anandus across the room, colliding with the wall, leaving a huge hole. Then she turned to Raven and whacked him too.

"What do you mean, ten times stronger!? That's an insult!"

Raven shrunk back, uttering an apology. Anandus was in no condition to defend his pride.

--

At a tea house in the Rukongai sat Kratos with his newest stalker. Thankfully, this one was different from the others. Her name was Ishikata Marisa, and she was only interested in his fighting skill. She kept her long violet hair in a loose ponytail to keep it out of the way, never really bothered with appearances, but she had a large group of admirers all the same. As the 6th seat of the 11th, it wasn't surprising then that the best way to impress her was with a fight, but she took it to an extreme, fighting almost constantly to build blinding speed, incredible endurance, a great relationship with her zanpakuto as a battle partner, and the sociability of a rock. She liked fighting even more than Kenpachi if that was even possible. Oh, right. It was since Kenpachi liked to go drinking too. Marisa's eyebrow twitched.

"Why are we here anyway?" Marisa asked indignantly. The sparring match they'd had an hour ago had been exhilarating, but he was such a bore the rest of the time.

"If you're so discontented, why are you still here?" Kratos asked, sipping his tea in a manner that resembled Byakuya so much it was almost scary.

"It was clear during our match that your skills are far beyond mine yet you hardly ever train. How is that?"

"It was a close match," Kratos denied.

"I may not be good with people, but I could tell during the fight that you were holding back no matter how hard you tried to cover it up," Marisa snapped at him. Kratos finished his tea.

"I've been around longer," Kratos tried.

"That doesn't change the fact that you don't train outside of the sparring matches that you started having with Zaraki-taicho," Marisa shot him down. Finally, Kratos relented.

"Aku zoku zan."

"What's that? Destroy evil instantly? Sounds kind of cheesy," Marisa scoffed, "I don't buy it. Being good or bad isn't going to make me any stronger."

"It really doesn't matter what it is. A reason to get stronger will yield better results than striving for the sake of power. That's just mine," Kratos replied easily, "Now, let's get back to our match, shall we?"

"Not here unless you want to destroy your favorite tea shop, leaving you with only the sake bar."

Kratos stiffened and shunpoed back to the 11th division training grounds with Marisa close behind. Once out of the Rukongai and anything that anyone would miss, the two disappeared into a flash of shunpo. A large cut formed on the road, then a random tree was ripped to shreds. A trail of destruction went all the way back to the Seireitei. Karin looked on from a distance with worry. It looked like following Kratos meant getting close to the constant destruction that went wherever he did. A certain someone took note of this disappointment.

"Two birds with one stone," Kratos muttered.

"What was that?" Marisa asked. His attention was obviously split.

"I'll explain later, but I'm sure you'd figure it out quickly if you wanted to."

Marisa scanned for anyone trying to suppress their reiatsu and quickly found it once Kratos lowered his a bit. Soon the "sparring match" had moved right around Karin was standing. All the poor girl knew was that the moment she budged an inch, a blade would come within inches of her face or the ground at her feet would be ripped apart. She curled up into a ball and cried. She didn't want to die. In fact, she didn't even want this mission. It had been so stupid to think that she could even spy on Kratos when he was focused on fighting someone else. He was on an entirely different level.

Karin was so detached from reality that she didn't even notice that Kratos and Marisa had stopped.

"That's another soul you've traumatized, Kratos. What are you going to do now?"

"Could you take her to the 4th for me? The SMC wants to get rid of me, and they will if I bring in one of their spies like this." Kratos reasoned, earning himself a glare.

"The things I do for you…" Marisa growled as she picked up the ball that was Karin and lugged her back to the 4th for recuperation. Meanwhile, Kratos bolted back to the 6th at full speed, his real speed. Then he slipped in past several more spies and into the 6th division office. A completed stack of papers was waiting for him. Sure enough, Soi Fon walked in within minutes, demanding to know what he had done with her "prized officer". It was quite laughable as everyone knew that Soi Fon treated no one well. The only person she respected way Shihouin Yoruichi, someone she was also hell bent on tearing limb from limb. Makoto swore she saw voodoo doll shreds in the office. It was hardly a comforting thought.

"You just traumatized my one of my prized officers! Now she's curled up in a ball, refusing food, water, and therapy!" she screeched, pointing an accusing finger at Kratos. He did feel kind of bad about it, but now was the time to figure out how to get rid of the screechy captain without getting covered in houmonkas. He could visit her later. There was a tapping of steps, and Kratos smiled. Byakuya entered, and he was far from happy.

"I have a guest trying to recuperate in my division. I will have no barbarians here."

"He hurt one of my officers!" Soi Fon complained angrily, trying to get someone to listen to no avail.

"If you haven't noticed, it is only noon, and Kratos has done all the paperwork. I've been tending to my guest for most of the morning. Leave and do not return unless you have more than the word of one shinigami in need of mental therapy."

Soi Fon was ousted from the building, and Kratos breathed a sigh of relief. He'd gotten away this time, but he could only keep the 2nd on a wild goose chase for so long. They were bound to figure out sometime that Kratos hadn't had any contact with the quincys at all. Raven had better hurry up and finish. Then he laughed to himself. The wild goose chase would have to be milked for all it was worth. It was time for a trip to America in the living world.

--

That's all for chapter 8. I hope you guys are enjoying this. Let me know what you like so I can put more and what you don't so I can take it out. I'm also almost done with the next chapter of for duty, for pride, for survival.


	9. Aizen's cookies and a trip to America

Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach. I don't own the foreign quincys. I own my Ocs. I don't own aku zoku zan.

So let's begin. I swapped computers, so my Oc story will sit for just a bit until I get the files back. Sorry. I also apologize for the fact that this chapter is a little short.

--

Shook the screechy taicho of the 2nd? For now, check.

Got a plan? Check.

Got clearance to go to America? Check.

Don't traumatize anyone in the process of preventing a war? Definitely no check and no comment.

So far so good. Kratos hopped through the senkaimon gate, stuffing his paid vacation clearance in his pocket. This might actually be enjoyable. He'd heard quite a bit about this place called San Francisco. Apparently, almost anything a human could want could be found somewhere there since it was so diverse.

"This might actually be fun," Kratos commented to no one in particular. Upon sensing a tinge of reiatsu from behind, he leapt through the gate with his gigai and started sprinting down the first street he saw. Normally, he'd scope out the best Chinese restaurant in town, but this was time to take stalker measures. Deciding to go for something new, he closed his eyes and pointed. A sushi buffet. Good. Since he usually didn't eat much, no hardcore stalker would ever find him there. Little did he know that this was no ordinary stalker.

"Let's see… I'll get some of this, some of that… and that looks pretty good…" Kratos mused to himself as he filled up his plate and grabbed himself a soda. It all looked great. Finding the closest open table, he sat down and dug in. Sitting back, he counted the blessings that life had dealt him. The AC was on, the food was awesome, the place was quiet, and best of all…

"Hiya, Kratos!"

"No stalkers…" Kratos mumbled. Why did it have to be Makoto. Anyone else would have been fooled.

"What was that? I didn't quite catch you," Makoto asked.

"Nothing," Kratos said, plastering a slight smirk on his face, "Have a seat."

He'd been caught, and there was little he could do about it unless he wanted to throw her out on her butt, but that would be far too rude and unwarranted. The more the thought about it, the more he found this might work to his advantage.

"Hey, Kratos?"

"Hm?"

"Why were you trying to shake me earlier? I could tell you were. I mean, you invited me to come here with you."

Kratos stared at Makoto with a wtf look on his face. He knew for a fact that he hadn't asked her to go anywhere.

"I know it must have been kind of odd for you to do, but there was a note left on my desk…" Makoto mumbled. Evidently, she was just as confused as he was. This had to be a prelude to the 2nd trying to track him down. He might be hard to find but not when he had someone weighing him down. Plus, it wasn't like he could say it outright. If Makoto hated anything, it was being a liability. She'd be heartbroken if he put it that way, and it would make the situation worse since she would be smart enough to ask why the 2nd was after him.

"I'll be right back," Kratos said with a smile as he got up and walked out. The moment he was out of sight and earshot, he flipped open his soul pager and dialed Liam's number.

"Yeah? Trouble already, Kratos?" came Liam's voice over the phone.

"Soi Fon just sent Makoto to weigh me down. I wouldn't dodge them for five minutes. Any bright ideas?"

"Sure. Just deny it."

"What if Soi Fon comes clean? I'd be caught in an instant."

"Well that's trouble, then," Liam mused. Kratos got the wheels in his mind rolling. He had little time before he had to get back, and it pained him to say it but it was the only watertight solution. He mumbled something.

"What was that?" Liam asked, "I can't hear you. Speak up."

"Forge a note from me asking Makoto out for lunch and leave it on her desk."

"You know this is going to cause an uproar when your fan club finds out, right?"

"It'll cause an uproar no matter what happens," Kratos replied stonily as he hung up. There. He'd done it. He'd doomed himself to have Makoto stalk him for all time. His life had officially been signed away. There had better be no war to make this worth it or Raven would have hell to pay for putting him in this position without any kind of compensation. Seeing that he'd been gone more than five minutes, he hurried back inside. It was time for a chaotic day.

--

Meanwhile, there was peace in the Hayashi house.

"I'm gonna kill you!!"

"Not even in your dreams, fool!"

Okay. Relative peace. Shinobu and Anandus were at it again, but that was a given. They had discovered that Yukari wouldn't mash their faces into the sidewalk as long as they kept it in the basement where the house would be safe.

"Will those two ever stop fighting?" Raven asked.

"No. The apocalypse will come the day Shinobu and Anandus stop trying to beat each other to a pulp," Soichiro answered with a laugh.

"I told you to stop talking so I can get this over with."

Raven sighed and shut up so Genesis could finish analyzing him. She had never studied a shinigami, so this test was an attempt to determine how shinigami purify hollows. So far, there was no success. Shoukyaku had absolutely refused to let anyone study her, saying that since a zanpakuto was part of a shinigami, what was more important was to figure out how they formed a zanpakuto. Then the process could be duplicated or reverse engineered. After all, it was a given that zanpakuto purified hollows. A kido equivalent could be dealt with later as it would serve more as a secondary weapon than a mainstream way of purifying hollows.

"Interesting. His soul chain is almost identical to that of a human's." Genesis murmured as she examined the now exposed chain with the help of her reishi gloves.

"Hey, hey, how about you not go and strip me of my reiatsu? You're getting a bit too close for comfort."

Genesis let go of the chain and put it back inside Raven's body.

"Okay, I guess that's enough for today," Genesis relented. It wasn't as though she couldn't keep working. At least she had something to compare with the quincy and normal human anatomies she had researched so thoroughly. She could always cross reference it with hollow anatomy later as well. The quincys tried to be optimistic, but it was all too obvious. Whether or not they were close to an answer, no one felt like it.

"There must be an answer, baka. If there's little to no difference between a shinigami and a human, then quincys should be able to purify hollows," came the voice of Shoukyaku.

"Eh?"

"What are quincys?"

"Uh… quincys?"

"They're humans, you imbecele!" Shoukyaku screeched as she whacked Raven upside the head. Sometimes she hated having him as a partner. Too many mood swings. One minute he'd be confident, the next he'd be a bumbling idiot. Why couldn't he pick one way to be and stay that way? Was it really too much to ask for?

"How about I kill him? Then he'll stay one way! Dead!"

Shoukyaku whirled around, scanning for Nevar. She knew that insane laugh anywhere, but this time, she couldn't tell just where it was coming from.

"Yuki arashi."

Raven's inner world began to hail until the ground was entirely white.

"Come on out and fight, Nevar. You can only prep so much."

A wolf formed from the ice on the ground, first one then an army. They were cut down in seconds, shredded like tissue paper. Shoukyaku twirled her sword around, trying to sense Nevar. A hail of needles engulfed the ground she was standing on, forcing her to run around aimlessly in her pursuit of her wily attacker. Eventually, she spotted him sitting on a tree branch.

"Hiya, glad to see you took my invitation," Nevar greeted with a wave. He was met with an angry glare.

"What do you want?" Shoukyaku asked, pressing the tip of her blade up against Nevar's throat.

"You can't kill me here, and you know it."

The blade was run through Nevar's throat, and he faded into the sheets of snow coming down from the sky.

"You can never contain me, Shoukyaku. One of these days, I will be stronger than you. What will you do then?" came a voice from behind. Shoukyaku whirled around to see Nevar sitting on another branch, completely unhurt. She gripped her blade harder, and it glowed with an ethereal black aura. The Nevar on the branch disappeared in a torrent of snow, laughing wildly.

--

Over in the 12th, Liam finished preparing the forged invitation. Using the resources at his division's disposal, he had created a perfect replica of Kratos' signature and used the pen that he had stolen from Kratos' office. On his way to the 2nd, he stopped by the 5th division doors. Was that… chocolate? One part of him wanted to keep going, but the other half urged him to go inside for some odd reason. Following the smell, he made his way to the kitchen. There was Aizen with a pink apron and a tray of fresh baked chocolate chip cookies.

"Aizen-taicho?"

"Oh, hello, Liam. I usually don't see you around here. Try some of my cookies," Aizen greeted with a warm smile. Liam stared at him like he was insane. Everyone knew that Aizen was Mr. friendly, but this was still a bit odd. Hesitantly, he picked up a cookie and took a bite. When asked to do something by a taicho, it was probably wisest to do it. It was really sweet, so sweet that it sent a shock up his jaw. Despite all attempts to cover it, the distress was noticed.

"Did I mess up the recipe?" Aizen murmured to himself.

"Too sweet…"

"Oh my. I really messed up, didn't I?" Aizen mumbled as he looked over the recipe again. He had put 15 cups of sugar instead of 1.5. No wonder the taste was so strong. Liam got an idea.

"Don't worry about it too much, taicho. I know that Ohmaeda-fukutaicho would love to try your cookies."

"They won't be too sweet?" Aizen asked uncertainly. Liam shook his head. Within two minutes, he was back on his way to the 2nd, this time bearing a huge box of sugar charged chocolate chip cookies. With it, he had no trouble entering at all. The guards knew better than to get in between Ohmaeda and prospective sweets, so they let Liam through without so much as a security check. Once he delivered the cookies, Liam slipped the forged note on Makoto's desk. Of course, he was careful to only touch it with his cloak so the fingerprints couldn't be traced back to him. With his mission accomplished, he left so he wouldn't have to see the resident fukutaicho's atrocious eating habits.

--

By now, Kratos was entertaining Makoto on what she would probably think of as a date. It wasn't exactly desirable, but the good part was that Makoto hated staying still, so they were constantly moving. Since the SMC was using gigais for the sake of blending in, they were stuck trying to follow the pair through a seemingly endless sea of people. Having dealt with the living world much more than the Seireitei based SMC, they had little trouble weaving through the crowds. The others were an entirely different story. This of course came with a price.

"Do I really have to carry all of this?" Kratos groaned in annoyance. Now he knew what it felt like to be a rack. At the moment, he was loaded down with six shopping bags, three in each hand. How exactly did he end up in this situation again? Oh, right. He'd agreed to help that scientist try to stop a war, and it just so happened that this had become necessary to do that. If Byakuya ever found out, he'd probably have a laugh over it. Of course, the laugh would come after the execution. Makoto finished checking out with HIS credit card. It wasn't like he was short of money since he was occasionally given money after exterminating hollows or just for existing. Apparently, he had a fan following in both worlds. What annoyed him was the fact that she'd swiped his credit card after he paid for lunch.

"Here, hold this for me," Makoto said as she slung her three newest bags of merchandise over his neck. It was so degrading. Then came another couple bags, hung from his neck the other way. Choked by the handle, he fell flat on his back, partly because of the fact he was being choked, partly because he had just spotted an SMC spy out of the corner of his eye.

"Oh, are you okay?" Makoto asked, kneeling down next to him. Good. Both of them were out of eyesight again but still far too close for comfort. Flipping out his cell, he texted Liam. They were going to have to go somewhere where following them would be nearly impossible. They needed plane tickets to Las Vegas.

Needless to say, Liam wasn't too happy to be bothered again when he got the text message from Kratos, but he did it anyway. He supposed that Kratos was probably in a lot more pain than him right now anyway. Little did he know how right he was.

--

Meanwhile, Genesis was busy comparing Raven's konpaku to that of a human. The differences were mostly small such as increased abilities and endurance. One small piece stuck out among the rest, probably the increased zanpakuto accessibility. In fact, it was all the same, just with a few things enhanced and the fact that the konpaku wasn't permanently attached to a body. Wait. Didn't that that mean that it was entirely possible for a quincy to become a shinigami? She rushed off to report her findings. She found almost everyone lazing about the living room. Shinobu looked up/

"Eh? Did you find something?"

"I think it is possible for a quincy to gain the abilities of a shinigami."

That earned a good deal of laughter. Only Raven seemed to take her seriously.

"I see. The soul chains were almost entirely the same. The soul sleep was just larger among other things." Raven murmured. The laughing stopped.

"You believe her?" Shinobu asked in disbelief. Raven might not be one to joke, but someone must have noticed before if this were actually true. Most looked over at Soichiro, who hadn't said a word so far. He just sat there with his eyes closed, thinking.

"Well, you're the boss. What do we do?" Shin asked.

"We're going to do what's most practical. Raven is going to become a quincy. Yukari, you're in charge."

"Why him? He's an idiot!" Anandus shouted. Yukari acquainted her foot with his face.

"A human's soul sleep, important to shinigami, is extremely small. It would be extremely difficult for us to become one. However, a shinigami should be able to harness reishi in the air fairly easily."

Raven's mind was scrambling to figure out a way to shoot this idea. Unfortunately, he found none. Sensing his reluctance, Shinobu grabbed his left arm and Rushin his right. Within seconds, he was halfway down the stairs that led to the basement training room. As much as he struggled and squirmed, it did little good. Both were way stronger than him.

"Come on, It'll be fun," Shinobu laughed.

"I don't wanna go! I came here to invent something, not to get killed in quincy training!"

"Who says you're gonna die?"

"Who are you kidding?! Yukari's in charge!" Raven shouted back. Shinobu thought about it for a second.

"On second thought, good point."

--

That's all we have for now. Again, sorry for the wait. I've been busy.


	10. A very large headache

Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach. I own my ocs. Astonish owns the foreign quincys. I don't own aku zoku zan, Hajime Saito's trademark from Rurouni Kenshin.

Sorry for the mass delay of updating. I shall sum up the reasons in one word. College.

--

By this time, Raven had stopped struggling. It was useless anyway. If he was going to go to his death, at least he could be comfortable on the way there. The thought was sombering.

"Good. You stopped struggling like a little baby. Now you can work on not acting like you've accepted death," Yukari scolded. She wasn't exactly thrilled about having to teach either. Skilled as she was, she was more of a "you point, I kill" type of person. Finally, they reached the bottom. Shinobu and Rushin let go, allowing Raven to fall to the floor with a thud.

"Now, the training begins. Shinobu, give him the quincy cross I told you to get," Yukari ordered.

"You didn't tell me to-" Shinobu started before he was silenced by a glare. In the interest of his well being, he scampered back upstairs to get the cross. Geez. That lady needed to take it easy. She'd looked harmless enough at first sight, but then someone really pissed her off, and he got to see her power firsthand. The fool ended up a bloody mess and moved out of the country the moment he recovered… 5 years later. That was more than enough reason to listen to her. Grumbling, Shinobu yanked up a floorboard that hid their extra stash of quincy crosses. Adorned with a crystal in the center to quicken reishi flow, they were hardly the mass produced type, far more powerful and efficient.

"Hurry it up!" Yukari called from downstairs. Shinobu got a cross, put the floorboard back and hurried down. An angry Yukari meant a dead Shinobu after all.

"Geez, woman. Take it easy. Here's the stupid cross," Shinobu grumbled as he haphazardly tossed the cross over to Raven who caught it and slipped the chain around his wrist.

"Good. Now feel the reishi in the air and draw it into the cross," Yukari ordered. Raven attempted to do as he was told. The cross glowed, and a bright blue ball of reishi formed in his hand.

"Now shape the reishi into the shape of a bow," Yukari continued. An explosion rocked the room. Shinobu and Rushin were blown back. Yukari waved the smoke away and eyed Raven who was now charred black.

"Way too much power, not enough control. Did those stupid shinigami teach you nothing? I heard you were a kido specialist."

"I am a kido specialist, but this is completely different!" Raven complained as he decreased the power and only came up with a spark.

"You channel reiatsu into your hands when you use kido, so why can't you control the amount of energy needed to form a bow?"

The next attempt was closer but still far from what was needed for a decent bow.

--

In the 4th, Marisa sat bored next to Karin's bed, fingering her zanpakuto idly. Why was she even here anyway? Kratos had asked her to bring the girl to the 4th, a perfectly understandable request, but he hadn't asked her to stay. She should be training. Though she had never lost a fight before, she didn't even have to debate whether she could stand a chance against Zaraki-taicho. It was also probable that Kratos was out of her league too. He'd never seemed to be serious when he fought, and that shunpo he displayed out there must have been at twice the speed they had been fighting at. Then there was that little rumor that he had bribed Kenpachi by agreeing to spar with him five times a week. Of course, the details of the bribe were unknown except that it was a rule that the eye patch stayed on at all times. Oh well. Whether he was holding back or not really didn't matter. She just needed to get stronger.

"You know, you won't get where you want to go just by training your body."

"Kimura Liam, shouldn't you be laying low right now? You and I both know that if Soi Fon isn't after you yet, she will be soon," Marisa said without turning to see the man in the doorway.

"I see you still haven't mastered a polite greeting," Liam joked lightly.

"Yours wasn't much better."

Liam shrugged. She was right, and he was hardly going to argue.

"What's your business here? You're a smart guy, and you work like a checklist. So get to the point already."

"Well, I'm really just here because I'm constantly on the move. Plus, no one would expect me to be in a place this obvious." Liam explained, running a hand through his hair. In an instant, he had the point of a zanpakuto up against his throat.

"Don't joke around with me. I know what you want. You want me to take you into 11th division territory because it's one of the few places where the SMC refuses to go since they'd be ousted in minutes," Marisa accused. Liam put up his hands in mock surrender.

"Okay, okay. You caught me. So will you do it?"

"Fine, as long as you have a sparring match with me."

"But I couldn't possibly beat someone like you," Liam complained.

Marisa gave him a glare and he relented. It was probably unavoidable at this point. She shunpoed off and he followed a step behind. They got there without too much interference since most of the SMC was trying to do an investigation of the 12th, a difficult task since Kurotsuchi-taicho had issues with people invading his territory, especially his labs. He'd fight them every inch of the way through formalities and then activate every booby trap in the division complex if that didn't work. Who would have thought that such stubbornness would come in handy down the road? Marisa noticed that Liam was going much slower than she was and shot him a death glare.

"Don't act like I'm stupid. Just because I spend most of my time swinging my sword doesn't mean I'm not aware of what you can do."

Letting out a tired sigh, Liam nearly doubled his pace. There really was no getting around this. His pace was matched and they soon arrived at "safe territory." Oddly enough, what they were defining as safe territory happened to be defined as a death zone by almost everyone else or simply "the 11th". To most it was already self explanatory. Great. On top of that, Kratos was probably going to kill him since most of the hotel rooms were booked, leaving few choices, choices that the stoic shinigami would not be happy about. As they reached the sparring grounds, Liam reluctantly drew out his zanpakuto. Before he'd even gotten it halfway out, he was forced to twist his body to block a slash to the side. In the blink of an eye, the offending blade was running through his arm.

"Ouch. That really hurts, you know," Liam complained. The blade was twisted and yanked out.

"Stop playing around and really fight."

"Do you really want me to go all out here?" he asked nervously. Some things weren't pretty at all and he knew about quite a few of them firsthand. Marisa's blade sped towards him again in a wild series of strikes that were becoming a real pain to keep up with.

"I'll take that as a yes. Haku, Shitsumeikage."

Liam's zanpakuto was covered in a torrent of dark flames. Marisa shunpoed back, taking care to notice that the flames had stuck to her blade where they had made contact and didn't go away for a full five seconds.

"I'm no taicho but I warn you that my shikai is probably the most sadistic one you'll ever see."

--

By this time all the quincys were laughing their butts off, minus Yukari since she just never laughed as far as anyone else knew. Raven's bow had just exploded for the 10th time.

"Soichiro, are you sure this is better than one of us learning how to be a shinigami?" Yukari asked.

"He's the one doing the inventing, so the best way for him to use this is to experience it firsthand."

Yukari turned and walked out. This was getting nowhere fast. There had to be a more effective way to get the job done. Survival came first. Everything else was merely a secondary objective. No one was stupid enough to try to stop her. Raven latest attempt at making a bow exploded again. He was sure that he heard stifled laughter in his head. He tried again and the bow blew up once more. Now he was sure he was wrong. Shoukyaku and Nevar laughing their butts off at him shamelessly just like everyone else.

--

"How could you have lost them?!"

Back in the Seireitei, Soi Fon's eye twitched. How was it possible that 20 seasoned members of the SMC has lost Kratos Aurion even with Makoto tying him down. If he was in normal form it would be understandable, but he was in a gigai. It was an insult.

"Can't you just send some people to search the places he went to? He couldn't have travelled that much in one day," Ohmaeda suggested as he took a bite of a sugar charged chocolate chip cookie. Soi Fon glared at him.

"Where did you get that?"

"I dunno. Someone left it on my desk," he replied stupidly. One of the seated members inched forward.

"It was a tall man with white hair that went over his left eye like-"

"You let him in! That was Kimura Liam, 4th seat of the 12th division! He's been moving behind the scenes for Kratos for over a month now!" Soi Fon thundered. The seated member shrunk back again for good reason. No one really messed with her unless they were considerably more powerful, and most of those people just didn't care to do so.

"You! Get me the list of all 12th and 6th division members and their current status!"

The files were fetched and scoured. Liam was on standby with no current missions. It was already common knowledge that Kratos didn't either, and it would be very impractical to only meet with the quincys during vacation leaves to the living world as it would be too obvious.

"Search for any members with long lasting missions!" Soi Fon ordered.

"Taicho, this one, Kanzaki Raven, is listed as being on a classified mission for Kurotsuchi-taicho. He's been gone for a little more than a month now."

Soi Fon cursed her luck. She couldn't revoke the mission or even force information about it out of anyone unless she had clearance from the soutaicho. However, she had them now and it was just a matter of time. For starters, she was going to have a talk with Byakuya. Even if she couldn't catch Kratos, Byakuya was so law oriented that he'd never let something like this go if he ever caught a hint of it.

--

Elsewhere in the living world, specifically America, Kratos was nearing the end of his little excursion. He was now weighed down with 5 bags bigger than he was. Luckily, Makoto had finally come to a relative stop. Of course, relative meant confined to one building. Since they dropped off the 50 shopping bags off at their hotel, wasn't the load supposed to be lighter? But no! She had to take a million dollars out of his account and convert them into chips. Yes, here they were in the Bellagio casino with Makoto gambling left and right. Strangely enough…

"Yay, Royal flush!" Makoto cheered.

"That's got to be the worst bluff I've ever seen. Why's she even here?" one of the other players complained. Grumbling was heard from a few of the other players as well.

"Because she has money," came the answer from the house player. No one was really going to argue with that. As far as they were concerned, it just meant more easy cash. Several of them went all in. As it turned out, she really wasn't bluffing. Another bag of chips was filled, and Kratos was thus landed with a seventh bag to lug about. Of course they were investigated for cheating, but there was nothing to worry about. They weren't. Makoto was just ridiculously lucky and happened to be winning at everything she played, blackjack, five card stud, Texas hold'em, even the slots. Two hours later, after Makoto had passed out at a table, Kratos dragged her back to the hotel room along with the now 250 million dollars he'd cashed the chips in for. When he got there, his eye immediately began to twitch. There was only one bed. Raven really owed him for this… and he was going to kill Liam for booking them this room.

"You're too lucky for your own good," Kratos muttered as he placed Makoto on the bed and the five suitcases of money on the floor next to the nightstand. There was a knock at the door. Kratos got up and opened it. There stood several men in business suits, probably the casino owner and some of his lawyers.

"Is Miss Kamata here? We would like to offer her a job-"

Kratos slammed the door shut, ditched his boots and flopped onto the far side of the bed. Today had been way too much of a headache. At least it was over now. The knock at the door came again. Reluctantly, he got up, slipped his boots back on, opened the door, and glared the men down angrily. Just for good measure, he released just enough reiatsu for it to be visible. They all had some small degree of spiritual power and would probably be able to see it. Surprisingly, one of them actually had enough courage to speak. Of course, it was possible that he was just in denial of what he was seeing.

"Mr. Aurion, we are the owners of the Bellagio casino, and we would like to hire both you and Miss Kamata to play for us."

"No."

"We would make it worth your while, say-"

"If we're going to discuss this, let's do it somewhere else," Kratos said, glancing back at Makoto. The businessmen got the hint and led him to one of their meeting rooms. The debate dragged on for what seemed like ages with the persistent fools. When it was finally over, Kratos ambled back to the hotel room, flopped back on the bed once again, closed his eyes, and-

"Morning, Sleepyhead!"

Kratos just groaned and buried his face in his pillow.

--

I'm almost done with the next chapter of my oc story too so it'll be posted soon.


End file.
